The Philadelphia Phillies Need Kyle Schwarber to Heat Back Up

Kyle Schwarber busted out of a slump with a big game at the plate Saturday night, and the Philadelphia Phillies need him to keep it up as the season winds down.

On Saturday night, in the bottom of the eighth inning, Kyle Schwarber launched his National League leading 37th home run to deep right center field. It travelled 467 feet, just one foot shy of his longest of the season. 

The massive home run was a great sign for the Philadelphia Phillies left fielder, who had yet to go deep in September. He also walked twice that game, which was a similarly promising development. Heading into Saturday night, he had walked just once in seven September starts.

In addition to his solo home run and two bases on balls, Schwarber also laced a gorgeous double to right field to lead off the game. It was his best offensive showing since early July, when he had two consecutive multi-homer games. 

He followed it up on Sunday with another solid day at the plate, drawing a walk, legging out an infield single, and scoring a run.

Philadelphia will be hoping that Schwarber's strong showing these past two days spurs a turnaround for the left-handed slugger. Going into the weekend, he was batting just .179 with a .493 OPS in September. His cold streak goes back farther than that too. Since Aug. 22, he was hitting .186 with just two home runs and four walks. 

The Phillies know their leadoff hitter can be better than that. He has been streaky this season, but when he is hot, he is capable of carrying an offense. From Jul. 26 to Aug. 21, he hit .280 with a 146 wRC+.

Before that, he hit .073 with a -6 wRC+ in 14 games from Jul. 7-25. But before that, he hit .285 with a 200 wRC+ from May 30 to Jul. 6. These are all arbitrary end points – 34 games here, 21 games there – but that's exactly the point. Schwarber is a streaky hitter. He goes into deep, unpredictable slumps. But at some point, the slumps always end.

Hopefully, for both Schwarber and the Phillies, Saturday marked the end of another cold streak. It certainly looked like it. And it couldn't have come at a better time.

After three more games against Miami, Philadelphia will begin one more difficult stretch of the regular season. They will play three games against the red-hot Braves; two against the Blue Jays, who have won ten of their last twelve and who swept the Phillies the last time they met; and then four more against Atlanta. 

Philadelphia cannot afford to collapse during that tough stretch, and a hot Schwarber will go a long way to help them win ballgames, especially if Rob Thomson continues to bat him in the leadoff spot. 

With just over three weeks left in the regular season, the Phillies must stay sharp. They are in a good position, but their NL Wild Card berth is far from guaranteed. Philadelphia needs Kyle Schwarber to heat back up, and hopefully, that's exactly what he's doing.

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