Phillies

Wawa Might Have to Cancel Hoagiefest if Kyle Schwarber Keeps Playing Like This

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Jun 2nd, 2023 · 9:17 AM EDT

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The Phillies were swept by the Mets on Thursday. Wonderful!

Kyle Schwarber accomplished this in the process:

Wednesday, Kyle Schwarber set a Phillies "record" for consecutive starts by a non-pitcher without hitting a single . . .

Here are the longest such single-season streaks in all of MLB we could find — pic.twitter.com/Tbx17qBJbM

— Bob Vetrone Jr. (@BoopStats) June 2, 2023

Right, so context is required because there are some damn good hitters on that list. Mark McGwire and Jose Bautista weren’t always hitting singles because they were busy hitting homers, doubles, and triples. There are plausible explanations for some of the funkiness you see there, but it does seem unfathomable that an everyday starter doesn’t stumble into a just one single over the course of 20+ games.

In Schwarber’s case, it’s much more damning than requiring of context, because in addition to not hitting singles, he’s not hitting anything else. He went 0-10 in the Mets series and has only six hits in his last 19 games, which takes us all the way back to the start of the Colorado series. During that stretch, he is 6 for 50 for a smooth batting average of  .120. We’re talking Cristian Pache levels of hitting here. Schwarber has just 31 hits all season and is logging an OPS of .699 and batting average of .160.

Of course, sequences like this don’t help:

Kyle Schwarber not happy with this Strike 3 pic.twitter.com/sSNTOlETz3

— Barstool Baseball (@StoolBaseball) June 1, 2023

As a whole, the Phillies have mustered nine runs over their last five games and almost reached 60 strikeouts in that same time frame. They are 25-31 and holding a one-game lead over the Nationals for last place in the division. Happy Friday!