Kyle Schwarber boosted his MVP campaign with some MLB history on Thursday.
The Philadelphia Phillies slugger posted MLB’s 21st four-homer game in a 19-4 blowout of the Atlanta Braves. He joins Eugenio Suarez and Nick Kurtz in accomplishing the feat in 2025, the first time the league has ever seen three four-homer games.
It’s also the fourth four-homer game in Phillies history, giving them the most of any MLB team. The other three: Ed Delahanty in 1896, Chuck Klein in 1936 and Mike Schmidt in 1976.
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Schwarber got started with a 450-foot monster in the first inning off Braves starting pitcher Cal Quantrill, then added two more off reliever Austin Cox in the fourth and fifth innings. The historic long ball came in the seventh inning off Wander Suero.
In total, Schwarber hit 1,618 feet of homers. He also had a chance to become the first player to ever post five homers in a game in the eighth inning, but he popped out against Braves position player pitcher Vidal Bruján.
The performance pushes Schwarber to a career-high 49 homers on the season, the most in the NL and one behind Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh for the MLB lead. Where it leaves Schwarber in the MVP race is a different story.
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How is the Shohei Ohtani-Kyle Schwarber MVP race shaping up?
Despite some support for Schwarber, Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani entered Thursday as a -5000 favorite for the award. Schwarber holds the statistical edge in homers and RBI when compared to Ohtani, but that’s pretty much it when it comes to offensive stats.
And, obviously, Ohtani leads Schwarber 32 1/3 to 0 in innings pitched. Schwarber has played eight games in left field this season.
Of course, the last thing you want to do is dig into an MVP argument with a month still to go in the season. One good month for Schwarber (or bad month for Ohtani) could change the math significantly, and a four-homer game is a decent sign there’s more power to come.