Phillies Defeat Twins In Field Of Dreams Game Behind Two-Homer Night From Kyle Schwarber
Philadelphia Phillies designated hitter Kyle Schwarber (12) high-fives teammates after hitting a lead off home run in the top of the First Inning Aug. 13, 2026 at the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa. Julia Hansen/Iowa City Press-Citizen
“They’ll Watch The Game, And It’ll Be As If They Dipped Themselves In Magic Waters. The Memories Will Be So Thick, They’ll Have To Brush Them Away From Their Faces. People Will Come, Ray.” – Terence Mann
In 1989, Universal Pictures released a film directed by Phil Alden Robinson starring Kevin Costner, Amy Madigan, James Earl Jones, Ray Liotta, and Burt Lancaster titled Field of Dreams. It told the story of Costner’s character Ray Kinsella, a farmer from Dyersville, Iowa, who begins to hear voices from his cornfield saying, “If you build it, he will come.”
Ray eventually realizes he needs to build a baseball field, and when he does, he’s greeted by the ghost of Shoeless Joe Jackson and the rest of the 1919 “Black Sox Scandal” players. Eventually, more former players come out of the corn to play baseball at Ray’s field, including his father, who was a former minor leager.
The film ends with Ray asking his father if he wanted to have a catch, as cars begin driving up to the field to come and watch the former big leaguers play.
On Thursday evening, MLB and Dyersville, Iowa, hosted the third-ever Field of Dreams game between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Minnesota Twins. Before the game started, just like in the movie, both teams walked out of the cornfield in the outfield and onto the field to get set for the night’s matchup.
Following the current players’ entrance, a team of MLB Hall of Famers, including the greatest pitcher and player in Philadelphia Phillies history, Steve Carlton and Mike Schmidt, entered from the corn.
A scene ripped straight out of the movie, done so well for the 8,000 fans in attendance and the millions watching around the world.
With the pregame festivities wrapping up, the actual game got underway, and with the Phillies as the designated away team, they hit first. Minnesota rolled out Taj Bradley to start the game, and Phillies leadoff hitter Kyle Schwarber needed just three pitches to show the Twins that Bradley starting was not the right move.
On a 2-0 heater, Schwarber smoked one deep into the corn in right field for a leadoff solo home run and the ninth home run in the state of Iowa. For Schwarber, it was his 36th home run of the season, once again making him the league leader in that category.
The offense in the first didn’t stop there, as Bryce Harper worked a walk and would eventually come home thanks to back-to-back singles from Bryson Stott and Luis Arraez.
Aaron Nola got the start for the Phillies, setting up a truly historic matchup between Nola and a field where juiced balls and lots of home runs are hit. While homers weren’t hit by Minnesota in the first, like the Phillies, the Twins offense looked ready to go with Trevor Larnach and Ryan Jeffers getting aboard thanks to a single, but Nola picked up a strikeout and a lineout to get out of the first.
While Nola was able to avoid the home run ball in the first, the second wasn’t the same as Luke Keaschall smoked a solo shot to left field to cut the Phillies’ lead to one. Despite the homer, Nola’s knuckle curve was working well to start the ballgame, and he used it twice in that second inning to keep the Phillies ahead.
Following a quiet third, Brandon Marsh got the offense rolling for Philadelphia in the fourth with a leadoff walk, and two batters later, the Schwarbarain woke everyone up with his second dinger of the night, this time a two-run bomb off Keaschall’s glove in right.
It’s the sixth multi-homer game for Schwarber this season, tying him with Rockies catcher Hunter Goodman for most in baseball, and extending his MLB home run lead to 37. Up 4-1, that lead increased nearly right away as Trea Turner smoked a double down the right field line, and he trotted home thanks to a single back up the middle from Harper.
With a four-run lead, Nola continued to dominate with his knuckle curve, picking up two more strikeouts in the bottom half of the fourth. Noles kicked off the bottom of the fifth with strikeouts seven and eight for two quick outs, but a two-out double from Byron Buxton and back-to-back walks from Nola loaded the bases.
Royce Lewis dug in with an opportunity to tie the game up with one swing of the bat against Nola, who was sitting at 94 pitches on the night. Phillies manager Don Mattingly elected to leave Nola in, and three pitches later, Nola used one more knuckle curve to strike out Lewis, totaling a season-high nine strikeouts on the night.
So the Phillies bullpen, which has gone through one of its worst stretches of the season recently, needed just 12 outs to pick up the win for Nola in Iowa. Brooks Raley was called first, and he was successful in the sixth, and before Jonathan Bowlan went out for the seventh, Brandon Marsh joined in on the cornfield homers, smoking a two-run bomb down the right field line, extending the Phillies lead to six.
Bowlan sped through the seventh, and Orion Kerkering did the same in the eighth, setting up Jhoan Duran to close things against his former squad in the ninth in a non-save situation. Duran needed just nine pitches to finish things off, ending the game on a line drive double play from Duran, picking up the Phillies’ 7-1 win.
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.
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