Kyle Schwarber is proving to be more than the Philadelphia Phillies bargained for when they signed him to a four-year, $79 million contract back in March.
As the leadoff man for the Phils, Schwarber is absolutely raking at the plate right now.
His batting average isn’t all that great, as it sits at .226.
But his power numbers are pretty good.
He’s got 27 home runs and 55 RBI as well as an .882 OPS.
Last night, he followed up his two-homer game on Tuesday night with another one, becoming the first leadoff hitter in the modern era to do it twice in back-to-back seasons, as Jayson Stark notes on Twitter.
Kyle Schwarber now has back-to-back multi-HR games hitting leadoff.
He also did that last season.
He’s the first leadoff man in the modern era to do that twice in his career, according to the invaluable @Stathead
— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) July 7, 2022
Schwarber Stays Hot
Schwarber has been everything the Phillies could have hoped for and more.
Since June 1, he has been on an absolute tear and is crushing the ball every chance he gets.
While Aaron Judge tears it up in the American League, Schwarber is doing the same in the National League and has been one of the key reasons for the Phillies resurgence following the firing of Joe Girardi.
He’s also done a great job of picking up the slack in Bryce Harper‘s absence.
Harper had his thumb surgically repaired after a Blake Snell fastball caused it to fracture and shut the slugger down for the next couple of weeks.
But Schwarber is making everybody forget about Harper for now.
He’s hitting just as good as Harper was before he went down with his injury and is carrying the load for a Phillies team that desperately needs it right now as they fight for a Wild Card spot.
We’ll see if Schwarber can keep it up, but he’s made some solid leadoff hitter history over the past few games, and more may be coming.
In a game more and more driven by analytics how can the Nationals, and now the Phillies, rationalize batting this low average, rbi machine first?