NEW YORK (AP) — Kyle Schwarber topped Mark McGwire for most home runs among a player’s first 1,000 hits, hitting long ball No. 319.
“I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not,” the Philadelphia Phillies slugger said.
Ten days after lifting the National League to victory in the first All-Star Game swing-off, Schwarber keeps going deep.
He hit a pair of two-run homers in a 12-5 victory over the New York Yankees on Friday night. The first drive, his milestone hit, started the comeback from a 2-0 deficit. He even got the ball back after it was grabbed by a Phillies fan attending with his friends in Yankee Stadium’s right-center field seats.
“I saw it on the video and then I see the dude tugging. I’m like: `Oh, they all got Philly stuff on.’ That was cool.” Schwarber said.
He met the trio after the game, gave an autographed ball to each and exchanged hugs. When he went to get a third ball to autograph, one of the three said he just wanted the potential free agent to re-sign with the Phillies.
“You show up to the field every single day trying to get a win at the end of the day and I think our fans kind of latch on to that, right?” Schwarber said. “It’s been fantastic these last 3 1/2 years, four years now, the support that we get from our fans and it means a lot to me that you know that they attach theirselves on our team.”
Schwarber tied it at 2 in the fifth against Will Warren when he hit a 413-foot drive on a first-pitch fastball.
After J.T. Realmuto’s three-run homer off Luke Weaver built a 6-3 lead in a four-run seventh and the Yankees closed within a run in the bottom half, Schwarber sent an Ian Hamilton fastball 380 feet into the right-field seats.
Schwarber reached 1,000 hits with eight more homers than McGwire. Schwarber has 36 homers this year, three shy of major league leader Cal Raleigh, and six homers in seven games since he was voted All-Star MVP. He has 33 multi-homer games.
“I don’t know where we’d be without him,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “Comes up with big hit after big hit after big hit. It’s just — it’s amazing.”
Schwarber is 32 and eligible for free agency this fall after completing a $79 million, four-year contract. He homered on all three of his swings in the All-Star Game tiebreaker, and when the second half began Phillies managing partner John Middleton proclaimed: “We love him. We want to keep him.”
“He’s been an incredible force all season long,” Realmuto said. “What he’s meant to his team, his offense, it’s hard to put in words.”
A World Series champion for the 2016 Chicago Cubs, Schwarber has reached 35 homers in all four seasons with the Phillies. He’s batting .255 with 82 RBIs and a .960 OPS.
He also has almost as many home runs as singles (46).
Schwarber had not been aware he topped McGwire for most homers among 1,000 hits.
“I had no clue. I even know it was my 1,000th, to be honest with you,” he said.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
