Kyle Schwarber is pounding post-season homers at such a rate that he fits right in with Mickey Mantle and Reggie Jackson.
The tattooed slugger is doing it all while powering the Philadelphia Phillies toward a chance for the franchise’s first World Series championship since 2008.
“If you want to get paid, win baseball games,” he said on Tuesday. “That goes a long way.”
Photo: EPA-EFE
So do his “Schwarbombs” — especially in October.
Schwarber hit two of Philadelphia’s three solo homers off Merrill Kelly, and the sweet-swinging Phillies pounded the Arizona Diamondbacks 10-0 on Tuesday night for a 2-0 lead in the National League Championship Series (NLCS).
Trea Turner also connected and J.T. Realmuto had two hits and three RBIs as Philadelphia improved to 7-1 in the playoffs, moving closer to a second straight World Series appearance. Aaron Nola tossed three-hit ball and struck out seven in six innings.
Game 3 is today at Chase Field. The Texas Rangers also held a 2-0 lead over the Houston Astros in the American League Championship Series headed into yesterday’s game.
“I think this is kind of the lineup that we envisioned ourselves having all season long,” Realmuto said. “I just think that we’re clicking at the right time right now.”
It was another noisy night in Philly as Kelly was roasted after saying fans at Citizens Bank Park could not possibly be any louder than the ones he heard cheering for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic.
Not just any Classic game — the one in May when Turner hit a grand slam for the US that lifted them into the tournament’s semi-finals.
“I haven’t obviously heard this place on the field, but I would be very surprised if it trumped that [World Baseball Classic] game down in Miami,” Kelly said ahead of Game 1.
As the kids say, challenge accepted.
Kelly, a 12-game winner this season, was voraciously booed from pregame introductions to his walk to the mound, a sort of we-will-show-you vibe from 45,412 Phillies diehards determined to shake the ballpark.
It was “AC/DC concert level” loud, Turner said of the crowd before Game 2.
Phillies manager Rob Thomson said a rival coach told him last season that a playoff game in Philly was “four hours of hell,” and Turner sent a charge through the delirious crowd when he clocked a four-seam fastball to left-center field for a 1-0 lead in the first.
“It was definitely loud,” Turner said.
Kelly said his comments were taken out of context and “made into something more than it should have been.”
“I knew it from the start that the energy was going to be loud,” he said. “I knew these fans bring a ton of energy.”
Boisterous fans are great. So is the long ball. Schwarber’s homers in the third and sixth were Philadelphia’s 14th and 15th homers in its past four games as the Phillies continue to mash their way through October.
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