Kyle Schwarber’s Hot Bat Carries Phillies Offense to Series Win Over Red Sox
May 12, 2026; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Philadelphia Phillies designated hitter Kyle Schwarber (12) hits a home run against the Boston Red Sox in the first inning at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-Imagn Images
The Phillies are lucky to have Kyle Schwarber because, without him, they likely would have been swept in Boston.
After going 10-3 following the dismissal of former Phillies manager Rob Thomson, the Phillies picked up their fifth consecutive series win, taking two of three from the Boston Red Sox. While offense was hard to come by during the three-game set, one man did all he could to make sure the Phillies had enough runs to pull out a series victory.
Schwarber may have only batted 2-for-10 in the series, with three walks and four strikeouts, but those two hits were both huge home runs that helped the Phillies pull out two victories in those games.
The first homer came in the opener, in the first inning of the game, a 386-foot bomb to right center field to open up the scoring for the Phillies. It was the fifth consecutive game that Schwarber hit a homer in, tying the franchise’s record and giving the early spark the team needed.
Schwarber’s other home run came in his final at-bat of the series, a two-run bomb to deep right field, breaking a 0-0 draw in the eighth inning.
Before this home run, the Phillies were 13-for-87 for a .149 batting average through 25 innings in this series, while also being 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position. While the Phillies managed to add an insurance run, this two-run bomb was all the Phillies technically needed, winning 3-1.
The pitcher who gave up the home run in the rubber match was Tyler Samaniego, a rookie for the Red Sox who pitched to Schwarber back in the first game of the series. Schwarber walked in that previous at-bat, but spoke postgame about how that previous at-bat helped him hit his homer in Game 3.
“We were talking about just a familiarity factor of seeing him in that first game,” Schwarber said. “I’ve never seen him before, but being able to kind of see the cutter before in the first game, and he goes to it once again, I just wanted to put a good swing.”
Schwarber has smacked seven home runs in his last seven games, and currently leads all of baseball with 18 dingers, two more than the second-place Aaron Judge has and four more than the next closest National League batter.
18 home runs is also the most through the first 44 games of a Phillies season since Mike Schmidt in 1980, and the second most overall behind Cy Williams, who hit 20 in 1923. Williams hit 41 home runs that season, and Schmidt had 48. Schwarber is on pace for 66, which would make him just the fourth player to have 66 or more in a season. His latest bomb was also his 358th career homer, tying him for 95th on the all-time HR list.
While home runs have always been Schwarber’s forte, as he continues to climb up the all-time home run list and inches closer to 500, Schwarber says that he isn’t trying to do too much at the plate and is just trying to stack good at-bats into good games.
“It’s not like I’m looking for a certain pitch or looking at a certain specific thing to do up to the place. It’s more about trying to get the ball where you want it to be,” Schwarber said. “Home runs, put a run on the board, but you want to also feel like you’re doing more throughout your whole day. Feeling like you’re putting together some really good, consistent at-bats, and I feel like I’m hopefully starting to get that point.”
The most impressive part of Schwarber eighth inning bomb to right, other than the fact that it went 417 feet and had an exit velocity of 110.4 mph, was that once again it was again agaisnt a left-handed pitcher. Last season, 23 of Schwarber’s 56 home runs were off left-handed pitching, an MLB regular-season record, and this year, Schwarber already has five bombs vs. lefties.
Schwarber has the most home runs of any batter vs. lefties since the start of the 2025 season, more than Cal Raleigh, Aaron Judge, and even more than Shohei Ohtani. Asked postgame about his ability to hit left handed pithching, Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly spoke about how great Schwarber is, no matter what type of arm he’s facing.
“Obviously good. It’s really why, no matter lefties or righties, it doesn’t seem to really matter if they make mistakes,” Mattingly said. “He’s a pretty good game planner, so he seems to know what they’re trying to do.”
While Schwarber provided big swings this series, the Phillies’ offense scored only six total runs, and three came from Schwarber. With matchups against the Cy Young favorite in Paul Skenes and the former No. 1 prospect in baseball, Bubba Chandler, coming up this weekend in Pittsburgh, the bats need to wake up and produce.
Schwarber can’t do everything and can’t win every series for you, so getting more from the rest of your order is needed if they want to make it six series wins in a row against the Pirates.
Matt Brown
Matt has been a Philadelphia sports fan all his life and spent four years at Penn State University majoring in Broadcast Journalism and minoring in Sports Studies. He previously covered Penn State’s field hockey, men’s and women’s basketball, and baseball teams while writing for a Penn State blog called Onward State. He has now covered the Phillies, Eagles, and Sixers for Philly Sports Reports since October 2024 and wants to pursue a career in Sports Journalism.
Get New Articles Emailed Right To Your Inbox:
