LOS ANGELES — Before Kyle Schwarber bashed three homers Wednesday night, Clayton Kershaw made him look lost. Schwarber swung through a curveball in Tuesday’s first inning. He took a full-count slider for strike three. Then, in his third at-bat, Schwarber worked another 3-2 count. He’s cut down his swing with two strikes — especially against lefties — and it has served him well.
He smacked a run-scoring single to center to put the Phillies ahead Tuesday. “Great at-bat,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. Then, on Wednesday, Schwarber reached base five more times. He was the first Phillie to collect seven RBIs in a game in 12 years. He carried the Phillies to their first series win in almost a month.
With 70 percent of the schedule complete, Schwarber is having one of the best seasons of his career. The three-homer game was an exclamation point.
“Special,” Thomson said after a 9-4 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers. “Really special. This guy’s good. He can really hit.”
Hahahahahaha this guy#RingTheBell pic.twitter.com/Cd3440NmjP
— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) August 8, 2024
Last season, people fixated on Schwarber’s .197 batting average. It was a number he hated. Schwarber was still productive because he reached base and hit for power. But the batting average hung over him.
He’s raised it by 64 points so far in 2024.
“There’s things that you want to accomplish, but to do that, you have to put in the work,” Schwarber said. “That’s the name of the game.”
Schwarber’s .390 on-base percentage is third in the National League. He’s hit the fourth-most homers (27) in the league.
“He’s very good,” Nick Castellanos said.
There is something about a 31-year-old hitter elevating his game like this. Schwarber told people in spring training that he would strike out less and put more balls in play. If he had to sacrifice some pull-side power, so be it.
He has found a way to do it all. It’s not perfect. But it is, in Castellanos’ words, very good.
“The fact that he wanted to cut down on the strikeouts this year just cleared up all of that,” Thomson said. “Because now he’s staying on the ball. He’s cut down his swing with two strikes. There’s a little bit of a two-strike approach there.
So, the average goes up. He’s putting the ball in play more. And the on-base goes up because he’s getting more hits. So it all works hand in hand. But the fact that he’d do this at this part of his career is really smart and shows me how much he cares and how much he can adjust.”
GO DEEPER
The essence of Kyle Schwarber, the Phillies’ everyman slugger with an empathetic spirit
Outfield shuffle coming?
Austin Hays wasn’t halfway to first base in the third inning when he started to hobble. He hurt his left hamstring and, while the Phillies were still gathering information, it would be surprising if Hays does not need time on the injured list.
He will be evaluated further Thursday in Arizona.
“He just he felt a grab,” Thomson said. “So, not really sure.”
Hays declined to comment after Wednesday’s game.
If Hays must miss a few weeks, it’s another opening for Johan Rojas, who has not played much since Hays joined the team. The Phillies have wanted to see Hays in an everyday role. He’s hit .263/.282/.395 in 39 plate appearances since he came over in a trade with Baltimore.
“I like his at-bats,” Thomson said Wednesday afternoon before Hays’ injury. “And I know he hasn’t walked yet. He doesn’t walk much anyway, and he never has. But I like the swing. I like his decisions. There’s a lot of bat speed there. He can hit spin. So I like what he’s doing so far.”
If Hays is down, the Phillies do not have many righty-hitting outfielders to tap into. Buddy Kennedy, who is on the 40-man roster, has smashed Triple-A pitching but is more of an infielder than an outfielder. Scott Kingery has hit .275/.326/.526 while mostly playing shortstop at Lehigh Valley. He has outfield experience and curiously played a game in center last week for the first time all season. His return would make for a nice story; Kingery has not taken an at-bat in the majors since May 2021.
The path of least resistance might be Kody Clemens, a lefty hitter. Clemens has struggled since his demotion in mid-July but has continued to hit for power in the minors.
None of those players would assume regular playing time in the majors. That would go to Rojas, who put his mark on Wednesday’s game as soon as he entered. He made a running catch in center. He beat out a groundball to the second baseman, stole second, then scored on a Schwarber double. He drew a walk to prolong the sixth inning, which allowed Schwarber to blast a three-run homer that ripped it open.
“I mean,” Thomson said, “he had a great game.”
Rojas could play his way back into the outfield equation.
Johan Rojas makes a running catch in Wednesday’s game. (Jayne Kamin-Oncea / USA Today)
A Turnbull plan
The Phillies are awaiting rotation reinforcements, but Spencer Turnbull will not be one of them. It’s been six weeks since he suffered a strained muscle in the back of his shoulder — an injury the Phillies said would require six to eight weeks of recovery time.
He has begun to throw bullpen sessions. Whenever he returns, it’ll be as a reliever.
Turnbull prefers to start, but Thomson said there are clear eyes regarding this situation.
“I think he’d be very comfortable with it,” Thomson said. “Because I think he understands that we don’t have a whole lot of time here. And he wants to win. He’s pitching for a contract too. I talked to him earlier in the year while he was still in the rotation. I said, ‘You know, there’s a lot of value in a guy that teams know can start and know he can come out of the bullpen too.’ There’s contracts out there for that guy.”
There are. The question the Phillies will have to answer later this month and into September is whether Turnbull can help them in a hypothetical postseason reliever role. He had a 4.26 ERA in 10 appearances as a reliever. He found a routine that suited him and, before he went back into the rotation in late June, his bullpen work was sharper.
Turnbull, at best, could be the club’s seventh reliever in October. He would be good insurance if one of the relievers suffers an injury. But, earlier this season, he needed extra time to warm up as a reliever. That would make it tougher to insert him into any higher-leverage role.
There is time to explore it.
(Top photo of Kyle Schwarber: Eric Thayer / Associated Press)
