PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia slugger Kyle Schwarber hit four home runs Thursday night against Atlanta to become the 21st major leaguer and fourth Phillies player to accomplish the feat.
Schwarber was 4-for-6 with a Phillies-record nine RBI in the 19-4 victory. He took the outright National League homer lead with a career-high 49 and moved within one of Seattle’s Cal Raleigh for the major league lead. Schwarber leads the majors with a career-high 119 RBIs.
“It’s pretty cool,” Schwarber said. “It was a fun night, great atmosphere. Wouldn’t want to do it with a better group of guys than we have here.”
Mike Schmidt was the last Philadelphia player to hit four homers in a game, doing so at the Chicago Cubs in April 1976. Schwarber had the third four-homer game of the season, following Eugenio Suárez and Nick Kurtz.
Schwarber’s 49 homers passed Ryan Howard (2008) and Schmidt (1980) for the second most in a season in Phillies history, trailing only Ryan Howard’s 58 in 2006.
“It just cooperated,” said Schwarber, who had entered the game hitless in his last 20 at-bats, by far the longest such streak entering a four-home run game since 1900. “You can do everything right and get out, and you can do everything wrong and get a hit. Got some pitches and put some good swings on it.”
Schwarber started the power surge with a solo shot in the first inning off Cal Quantrill, sending a 2-1 curveball into the right-field seats. Schwarber hit a flyout to center in the second.
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After Quantrill was lifted with one out and two runners on base in the fourth, Schwarber greeted lefty Austin Cox by sending a 3-2 curveball over the wall in right for his fourth multihomer game of the season.
With “M-V-P! M-V-P!” chants ringing down from Phillies fans in the fifth, Schwarber launched a three-run drive to left off Cox to put Philadelphia ahead 15-3. In the seventh, Schwarber hit a three-run shot to right off Wander Suero to make it 18-4.
Schwarber popped out in the eighth against Braves third baseman Vidal Brujan.
“I stink against position players,” Schwarber said jokingly. “All you’re trying to do is get a good pitch. I got the pitch. Just popped it up.”
Schwarber, 32, has 333 homers in 11 seasons in the majors with the Cubs and Phillies. His previous career high was 47 in 2023 for Philadelphia.
The Associated Press and ESPN Research contributed to this report.
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