Kyle Schwarber’s sixth-inning grand slam served as the big blow that pushed the Phillies to an 11-7 win over the Houston Astros. Even Schwarber was a bit surprised, based on his one-handed swing at the pitch.
“That’s a good question; I don’t know,” Schwarber told 94 WIP’s Dave Uram. “It just happened to go out.”
The blast ended up being Schwarber’s MLB-leading 44th home run of the season. It capped off a six-run sixth inning, in which the Phillies took the lead for good. But it took a lot of quality at-bats to bring Schwarber up to the plate to deliver in that moment.
“I feel like there was a lot of good things to look at the game today. Got punched right away, we respond right back, punch right back. Kept finding ways to keep responding, keep trying to find ways to put guys on base, scoring position, execute.”
“That’s a good question. I don’t know. It just happened to go out.”
@SportsRadioWIP @KYWNewsradioKyle Schwarber on Phillies Big Comeback vs. Astros
The Phillies rallied against Astros ace Hunter Brown and the bullpen. After Cristopher Sanchez coughed up four runs in the top of the third, Philadelphia answered with one of their own.
“That’s a really quality pitcher out there they have as their starter,” said Schwarber. “To go out there and we get four scored against us, and we respond right away and put four back, I think it was all singles? To have that in the bag, we’re not always going to rely on slug, we’re not going to rely on putting the ball in the seats.”
The Phillies got to Brown with five singles in the third, while also taking advantage of a defensive miscue. That third-inning rally set the stage for how the night would go.
“We want to be known for doing all the little things right as well, too. That could be singles, getting guys over, situational baseball as well.”
Trea Turner sent Brown a parting shot in the fifth with an opposite-field home run to bring Philadelphia within a run.
The Phillies completed the comeback effort against the Astros bullpen. As soon as Brown left the game, they strung together great at-bats to set Schwarber’s moment. The 33-year-old obliterated an A.J. Blublaugh sweeper to send Citizens Bank Park into a frenzy.
“I get up there, bases loaded. There’s a lot of really good things that happened before that, to come up in that situation. Have guys on base for that.”
Phillies Gain Ground on Braves
Thanks to the Atlanta Braves losing 7-2 to the Tampa Bay Rays, the Phillies have closed to within three games of the National League East lead. They also pick up a game on the Chicago Cubs, as they lead by two in the loss column for the NL’s No. 4 seed.
“For us, those are big wins because we keep responding,” said Schwarber. “They had a really good pitcher out there; we had our guy out there. For how many times he’s picked us up throughout the year. For us to go out there and pick him up, those are things we’re always going to have to rely on.
At 82-64, the Phillies know that they need to just focus on stacking wins and letting the rest play out as needed.
“We’re going to need to find ways to win games. We just can’t always be a pretty standard, straightforward game sometimes. There’s going to be times, like we’ve seen it throughout the rest of this year, where we’ve come back, battled through different things. That’s what it’s going to take to get through this stretch and hopefully find our way into October.”
As a result of this win, the Phillies have a 98.7% chance of making the postseason, according to FanGraphs Playoff Odds.
Kyle Schwarber Gives Statement on Phillies Big Response vs. Astros