Kyle Schwarber is serenaded with ‘MVP’ chants in Phillies’ 13-3 rout of Orioles: ‘You feed off it’
Schwarber homered twice, including a sixth-inning grand slam as part of an eight-run frame to break the game open. The Phillies DH has 40 homers and is on pace for 57.
As Kyle Schwarber lifted the bat off his shoulder, “M-V-P” chants rained down from the Citizens Bank Park crowd on Monday.
The Baltimore Orioles bullpen was stripped down to the studs last week at the trade deadline, and right-hander Yaramil Hiraldo, recalled just four days before, had the unenviable task of facing Schwarber with the bases loaded and two outs in the sixth inning.
Hiraldo tried to sneak a fastball by him, even though Schwarber had just sent one 427 feet in the third inning for a two-run shot. And so he answered the chants with a grand slam, his 40th home run of the season. It capped an eight-run sixth inning that powered the Phillies to a 13-3 win over the Orioles.
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“All I was thinking was trying to go to the middle of the field there,” Schwarber said. “And it just happens, it goes over the fence.”
Phillies starter Jesús Luzardo had been lined up to go back out for the seventh, but as soon he saw the ball leave Schwarber’s bat, he knew his night was over.
“It was cool to see,” Luzardo said. “You hear the MVP chants, and I think they’re warranted. He’s a stud.”
Schwarber is on pace for 57 home runs this season. The single-season Phillies record is 58, set by Ryan Howard in his 2006 MVP season.
“We all heard over the weekend how special that ’08 team is,” Schwarber said. “That’s a thing that we all strive to be. We all want to get to that position, and we want to be in that position that they had, getting remembered for a long time. You’re going to be remembered here for forever. So those are things as a player, that’s what you dream of.”
The big sixth inning came inches away from never happening. With two outs, catcher J.T. Realmuto narrowly beat out Gunnar Henderson’s throw on an infield single, a call upheld after replay review. Another single from Nick Castellanos set the stage for a three-run home run from Harrison Bader for his first hit in a Phillies uniform, breaking what was then a 3-3 tie.
“I’m here for a reason, one singular reason,” Bader said. “That’s to perform and help this team win, on all sides of the baseball. When I think about it that way, it kind of silences everything else, quiets everything else down, and executing.”
Manager Rob Thomson opted not to pinch-hit for Bader once the Orioles brought in right-handed reliever Corbin Martin, and the decision paid off when he got a four-seam over the middle of the plate.
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The Phillies weren’t done there. Three consecutive singles from Otto Kemp, Edmundo Sosa, and Weston Wilson scored another run. Trea Turner drew a walk to load them up, bringing Schwarber — who started the inning with a lineout — back up to the plate.
When he came up to bat again in the eighth and ripped a single to right field, he heard the chants again.
“He’s one of those guys, he’s very humble,” Thomson said. “He’s a great person. Does a lot for the community, does a lot for this organization, and he’s a great player, great hitter. So I can understand why everybody loves him, because I do too.”
It was a homer-heavy game, as the Phillies and Orioles traded blasts early. All three runs Phillies starter Jesús Luzardo allowed came off home runs: a two-run shot from Tyler O’Neill in the second and a solo homer from Jordan Westburg in the third. But Luzardo silenced the Orioles after that, retiring the final 11 batters he faced. He finished with a quality start.
“Even the ones that were hit out, I think were good pitches,” Luzardo said. “They put some good swings on it. But I just settled in, kept them off balance. Threw some good changeups, threw a lot of strikes, no walks. … The last two starts have been better out of the stretch.”
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Bryce Harper hit a solo home run in the first inning, and Schwarber tied the game up in the third with his first of the game. Sosa and Wilson later joined the party by going deep back to back in the eighth. The Phillies’ six total home runs were their most in a game since 2021.
“We always feed off energy,” Schwarber said. “When you get into a spot and the crowd’s up chanting, whatever it is, you feed off it. … Those are the moments that you take in as a player. You know that those are special things that happen, and those are things that kind of just go in the back of your memory. And you hold on to those things for a while.”