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Kyle Schwarber hit home run No. 46 last night. Also Nos. 47, 48 and 49. We dive into the numbers on four-homer games, and Ken asks if Schwarber is a legit MVP candidate.
Plus: Corey Seager’s appendectomy is the latest blow for the Rangers, and we have our baseball card of the week! I’m Levi Weaver, here with Ken Rosenthal. Welcome to The Windup! (Quick programming note: We’re taking Monday off for Labor Day.)
History: Schwarber blasts 4 HR, now at 49
Jayson Stark’s Weird & Wild column is off this week. I’m no replacement, but I do have a couple of factoids for you from Kyle Schwarber’s four-homer night, as the Phillies shook off that Mets sweep with a 19-4 win last night.
Before this year, the last time a player hit four home runs in one game was in September 2017, when J.D. Martinez did it against the Dodgers as a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks. From 2018-2024, nobody did it.
But when Schwarber made TV magic last night against the Braves, he became the third player to hit four homers in a game this year, after Arizona’s Eugenio Suárez (who also did it against Atlanta) and A’s rookie Nick Kurtz. Do you know how many seasons in MLB history had three different players with four-homer games? To steal a turn of phrase from Stark: That would be none.
- Bonus weirdness? It’s happening in a season that — as Tyler Kepner points out in this week’s “Sliders” column — is a month away from being the first in 20 years with zero no-hitters.
It has happened twice in a season before: Martinez was the second to do it in 2017 after Scooter Gennett of the Reds. And Shawn Green (Dodgers) and Mike Cameron (Mariners) did it in 2002.
If you’re curious about the six-year gap, that’s nowhere near the longest one between four-homer games. Between 1896 (Ed Delahanty, Phillies) and 1932 (Lou Gehrig, Yankees), not a single player hit four in a game. There was also a 15-year gap from 1961 (Willie Mays, Giants) to 1976 (Mike Schmidt, Phillies).
If you’re noticing a lot of Phillies here, that’s because they have more four-homer games (Delahanty, Chuck Klein in 1936, Schmidt and Schwarber) than any other team. The next closest? The Diamondbacks and Braves, who have two each.
Schwarber now has 49 home runs, which leads the NL and trails only Cal Raleigh (50) for the MLB lead. For more on Schwarber, here’s Ken:
Ken’s Notebook: Voter fatigue shouldn’t impact MVP awards
From my latest column:
When it comes to the MVP cases of Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani, we soon might find out whether voter fatigue is a thing.
It shouldn’t be. The voting members of the Baseball Writers Association of America should judge each candidate solely on his merits. But with Raleigh representing a viable alternative to Judge in the AL and Schwarber making a strong run at Ohtani in the NL, would anyone be surprised if human nature came into play and voters were tempted to do something different?
Judge has won the award two of the last three years, Ohtani three of the last four. And the only reason Ohtani is not working on five straight is because he finished second in the AL race in 2022, when Judge hit 62 home runs.
This season, Judge and Ohtani still might be the favorites in their respective leagues, possessing certain statistical advantages over their biggest challengers. But nearly a month remains in the season. Both races could easily go down to the end.
Fans at Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank understandably chanted “MVP” last night when Schwarber took over the NL home runs lead from Ohtani.
Fans in Seattle are just as impassioned about Raleigh, whose 50 home runs are a record for a player who primarily plays catcher — a position where Raleigh is so adept, he won the AL Platinum Glove last season.
Keep in mind, Ohtani and Judge derive no direct benefit in the voting from playing in the nation’s two largest markets. The balloting for BBWAA awards includes two voters from each AL or NL city. This is not the electoral college. A vote from Kansas City carries just as much weight as a vote from New York.
Another thing: The MVP vote is inherently subjective. The award is not for Player of the Year. It is not for highest WAR. And for goodness’ sake, it should not be for best narrative. Voters establish their own standards. And both MVP races this season feature apples-to-oranges comparisons that could make the balloting rather complicated.
Call It?: Corey Seager: Appendectomy
The 68-67 Texas Rangers have spent most of 2025 playing the role of the tease: lingering just outside the wild-card qualifiers, relying on world-class pitching while enduring lengthy stretches of ineptitude at the plate.
It might be time to go ahead and write them off, though. Check out the guys who have landed on the IL in just the last week:
Marcus Semien: fracture of the third metatarsal bone in left foot, out for the season
Evan Carter: fracture in right wrist, out for the season
Nathan Eovaldi: rotator cuff strain, likely out for the season
Corey Seager: appendectomy, no timetable for return
That’s right: Seager had his appendix removed yesterday, less than 24 hours after going 2-for-3 with a home run in the first five innings of a 20-3 win over the Angels.
I think we can call it a season for Texas. The Rangers are still just 4 1/2 games out of that last AL playoff spot, but with these four guys on the shelf, a playoff berth would be nothing short of a miracle.
And let’s not forget Tyler Mahle, Chris Martin and Jake Burger were already on the IL before the big four went down (and, for good measure, Jacob deGrom missed a recent start with shoulder fatigue).
It’s technically possible Eovaldi could return by season’s end. Same for Seager; an appendectomy usually takes four to six weeks, but we’ve seen guys return earlier (hello, Matt Holliday, who did it in nine days. What an animal.)
Seager is hitting .271 with an .860 OPS and 21 home runs this year (hamstring issues had already limited him to 102 games).
More “I’m calling it”: The Cubs aren’t catching the Brewers this year. They were just swept by the Giants and now trail Milwaukee by 6 1/2 games in the NL Central.
Baseball Card of the Week: 1992 Donruss ‘The Rookies’ — Steve Scarsone
Every five years or so, I go through and file away all the cards I’ve bought over the last half-decade. This week, my dining room table is a lovely mess. One thing a re-org does is allow me to see cards I hadn’t looked at in years, occasionally seeing a guy whose career is a complete mystery to me.
It turns out, Scarsone’s career was relatively unremarkable — he was worth 1.0 bWAR, playing for five teams over parts of seven seasons, hitting .239 (.675 OPS) with 20 home runs (off 20 different pitchers). All I can find about him online has to do with his managerial and coaching career; he’s still in player development with the A’s.
But the reason I picked this card doesn’t have anything to do with that. I picked it because when I first looked at it, before I saw the name, my first thought was … “Joey Votto wasn’t playing in 1992?!”
Handshakes and High Fives
After years of delays, the civil trial between the Angels and the family of Tyler Skaggs is set to happen, starting in September. Sam Blum has the whole story here.
Meanwhile, Ian O’Connor reminds us: Nolan Ryan, Tom Seaver, Dwight Gooden, Jacob deGrom … Jonah Tong is just the latest in a Mets tradition. He’ll debut tonight against the Marlins.
A request to the universe: Can you please leave Francisco Alvarez’s hands alone? He now has a fractured pinky on his other hand, suffered while recovering from a ligament sprain in his right thumb.
Anthony Volpe to the minors? Not on Aaron Boone’s watch.
What I’m watching this weekend: With all due respect to the debuts of Tolle and Tong, I’m super interested to see how Shane Bieber (and his new pitch) fares at home against the Brewers tonight. 7:07 p.m. ET, FanDuel Sports Network in Milwaukee / Sportsnet in Toronto / MLB.tv for out-of-market fans.
On the pods: The “Rates & Barrels” crew talks about Bryan Woo’s ascension to ace status and how the next big A’s core is coming together nicely.
Most-clicked in our last newsletter: Evan Drellich’s look at whether the Savannah Bananas are real competition for MLB.
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(Photo: Kyle Ross / Imagn Images)