Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper homer as Phillies snap skid with 4-3 win over Diamondbacks

It was “Kids Opening Day,” and the Phillies showed up to the party toting a record of 6-7, apropos of a joke that only children seem to get.

But nobody thinks it’s funny when a team doesn’t hit.

That was the backdrop Saturday, with the Phillies having scored in one of their previous 29 innings. And although they’re correct in saying that it’s too soon to panic, the early-season funk has exposed flaws in a lineup that lacks right-handed power.

Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper can’t help with that. They bat from the left side. But the Phillies’ best way to generate offense is when their two sluggers go deep. And when they do it back-to-back, it can change a game.

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Witness the third inning. Schwarber and Harper banged homers in a span of three pitches, erasing another early deficit against starter Taijuan Walker and powering a 4-3 victory over the Diamondbacks that evened the three-game series.

“It was great to see Schwarber and Harper go back-to-back,” manager Rob Thomson said even before he was asked. “That’s what we need.”

And the Phillies surely needed a victory as much as any team needs one in the 14th game of a season.

“I don’t want to qualify it like we badly need anything, right?” said Schwarber, ever even-keeled. “I think the biggest thing for us is not feeling like we need to go do something. If we stay within ourselves, we feel like we can do what we do on a daily basis.”

But it sure is a lot easier when Schwarber and Harper lead the way. The Phillies were 37-12 last season when Schwarber homered; when Harper went deep, they were 19-6. This season, they’re 5-0 when either player homers.

It’s a tried-and-true formula.

“We always say, ‘Home runs is instant offense,’” Schwarber said. “You put the ball in the seats, you get the runs. It’s not like we’re relying on that. There’s a lot of good things that happened within mine and Harp’s at-bats. But also the things before, too, that led up to that, those are really good signs as well.”

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Schwarber pointed to Alec Bohm’s good fortune in reaching on a chopper that wasn’t handled by Diamondbacks shortstop Geraldo Perdomo, and Justin Crawford’s grounder through the left side. Those at-bats set up Schwarber to hit a missile into the right-field seats for a 3-2 lead.

But the best signs for the Phillies’ offense over the last week have come in Harper’s at-bats. Harper sees more breaking pitches than almost every hitter in baseball. When he doesn’t chase pitches out of the strike zone early in counts, he earns fastballs later.

In this case, Harper laid off a first-pitch curveball in the dirt from Diamondbacks starter Brandon Pfaadt, who followed with a hittable fastball.

And Harper crushed it 419 feet to right-center field.

“It’s all about controlling the strike zone, not getting out of the strike zone where you get into a bad count and then they can play with you,” Thomson said. “He’s really swinging the bat well right now.”

Indeed, Harper has eight hits and five walks in his last 21 plate appearances, raising his on-base percentage to .350 and his OPS to .850.

“He’s controlling his zone, and obviously he’s getting a lot of really good contact,” Schwarber said. “That’s prime him. That’s what he does.”

Said Walker: “That’s the Harper that we all know. Good, good swings. Even the one he flew out to the warning track in left field. I think everyone thought that was gone. So, he’s swinging the bat well.”

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Walker remains a first-inning enigma.

He allowed four runs in the first inning March 30 against the Nationals, three last Sunday in Colorado, and two more against the Diamondbacks on Ketel Marte’s leadoff homer, a four-pitch walk to Corbin Carroll, and a one-out RBI single by Adrian Del Castillo.

Walker has a 27.00 ERA in the first inning, 2.31 thereafter. He will make at least one more start before Zack Wheeler is ready to return to the rotation.

Thomson said the Phillies are looking into Walker’s pre-start routine. Walker said he has been “trying to get the energy levels up” by simulating facing hitters in the bullpen.

Clearly, something needs to change about how he gets ready.

“It’s a different adrenaline from the bullpen to the mound, so just trying to figure out how to replicate game speed in the bullpen,“ said Walker, a 14-year veteran. ”It’s just trying to get that energy going earlier."

This much is clear: Nothing stimulates the Phillies’ offensive energy like dingers, especially from their two boppers. When Schwarber and Harper take big swings, it masks the lineup’s other flaws.