
Kyle Schwarber: Phillies Don't Worry About Stats, Just Wins
In a weekend where Phillies fans were all about showing their love, there sure seemed to be a juxtaposition in the way they showed it with different players.
Trea Turner got the contrived “we still love you” cheers from a half-standing crowd worried about his mental health, and then when he eventually hit a 3-run home run on Saturday embraced themselves as providing just the elixir Turner needed to get past the worst four months of his baseball life.
Meanwhile, Kyle Schwarber continued to get the… well… “tough love?”
It's astonishing that Schwarber would run to third there. Just beyond stupid. Guy's a stooge
— Dr. Juice (@Dr_Juice1) August 6, 2023
So now that Trea is doing better, you think the Philly media can help get Kyle Schwarber out of the leadoff spot?
— Zach Coates (@zachcoates15) August 6, 2023
If the Royals are letting Greinke bat, the Phillies should let Lorenzen hit for Schwarber
— Trea's Mom🇺🇲 (@MintFresh76) August 6, 2023
That’s just a sampling off comments on TwiXter during Sunday’s game. When Schwarber struck out in the first at bat of the game, the boos from the sellout crowd were pretty hearty.
Schwarber would go on to have three hits in his next three plate appearances, including a mammoth two-run homer off the batting eye in centerfield to garner player of the game honors in an 8-4 win over the Royals.
That means the Phillies are now 36-19 since moving Schwarber back into the leadoff spot on June 3rd, the second-best record in baseball in that time behind only the Braves (37-15). And in that same span, they are 14-0 when Schwarber hits a home run:
https://twitter.com/BarnHasSpoken2/status/1688255310538911744?s=20
In thinking about slumps of players recently – Nick Castellanos, Turner, and Schwarber, it seems as if each takes a different approach to dealing with it. Castellanos needed to go home, hang out with his brother and his close friend and have a late-night batting practice at his home batting cage. Turner also had late night BP in Miami, but his was at the cage underneath loanDepot Park following a brutal loss to the Marlins in which Turner’s suspect defense cost the Phillies a win.
Of course, Turner got the much-ballyhooed standing ovation Friday, and then the homer Saturday, and two doubles since the homer, and everyone is convinced he’s fixed.
As for Schwarber, he’s been through these stretches many times before. He has a reputation as a streaky hitter, so going 0-for-19 or 5-for-42 or whatever, doesn’t weigh on him as much. Yet, I asked him about how he processes these stretches and if there’s anything he finds that gets him to snap out in a big way – like with his 3-hit day Sunday.
And his answer told a different story than I think most of us – including myself – had yet to really take into consideration.
“At the end of the day it’s about winning a baseball game,” Schwarber said. “An 0-for-4 with a win is great… if you go 3-for-4 in a loss, that sucks. That’s the only thing you have to care about at the end of the day. I know there are younger guys who play for statistics and things like that, but for me, I’m here to win and get back to where we were last year and then finish it off. That’s the thing that we keep striving and pulling for – a win a the end of the day.”
It seems simple enough. The ol’ team-first cliche where individual statistics don’t matter, it’s all about team success.
But then it dawned on me – I had heard something similar earlier in the day. Before the game actually. In a completely unrelated conversation.
I was talking to reliever Dylan Covey Sunday morning. With the Phillies converting to a six-man rotation for a stretch, the bullpen is one person short, so everyone is going to have an uptick in innings coming out of the pen.
Covey, who has been the Rasputin of the bullpen since his arrival to the team as an emergency signing, when he was claimed off waivers from the Dodgers on May 20th, and remained on the roster while guys like Andrew Bellatti and Connor Brogdon were sent down to the minors and Andrew Vasquez was designated for assignment, was talking about what has worked for him with the Phillies that hasn’t worked for him in his previous MLB stints and how he’s been able to bring that into play when he’s called on in games.
“I was thinking about this last night,” Covey told me. “In all of my previous big league experiences, you get to a certain point in the season where you realize, ‘we’re not playing for a collective group right now. My personal stats mean more to me in preparing for next season than anything else.’ Here, that’s not the case. That’s a really good feeling. Everyone is pulling for one thing.”
Covey didn’t pitch Sunday. He’s definitely a guy the Phillies turn to for multi-inning relief when they are losing. In the 14 games he’s pitched for the Phillies, they are 2-12. That’s not his fault. In his last nine appearances he has a 1.50 ERA and a 1.167 WHIP. He’ll tell you it’s because he’s picked up an old school slider since coming here that makes his sinker more affective. He also learned a cutter this year too, although that was while he was in L.A. and he admitted he threw it too often to lefties.
That’s good conversation for a story like this one. Talking about a guy who could be an interesting bullpen piece down the stretch. We can focus on statistics and details, and things of that nature for context.
But in the context of what the Phillies are at the moment, sitting tied for the top N.L. Wild Card spot at 61-51 and creating a little bit of space between themselves and the first team out of a playoff spot (3 games ahead of the Reds), statistics don’t matter.
It doesn’t matter who’s going well, who is slumping, who needs a day off, who is being asked to step up, none of that is consequential to the 26 guys in the clubhouse.
“The beautiful thing about this game is that there are going to be times when it’s one guy for a couple days and someone else for another couple days and someone else for another week,” Schwarber said. “We have really talented players throughout our whole lineup and if we’re all going at the same time, well that’s great too.”
As long as in the end, there’s enough wins to give it another run in October, that’s all that matters.
Miscellaneous stuff from Sunday:
- Taijuan Walker gave up three runs on five hits in the first inning, and then one run on two hits in the next six innings. His velocity was down early for the second straight start and then picked up as the game progressed. I asked him if he could feel that physically. He said he could. He said he physically feels better as the game moves on. Manager Rob Thomson said it might be a little bit of a “dead arm situation.” Walker said it’s August, which would suggest something similar as starting pitchers frequently hit a bit of a wall at this time of year and need to get loose again. However, for the season, Walker has a 6.75 ERA in the first inning, and a 3.46 ERA in all other innings combined. It’s weird.
- Walker leads the majors with 13 wins. In the analytics age, wins have been devalued. However, if a starting pitcher is accumulating wins, it means he’s thrown at least five innings and has kept his team in the game, giving them the opportunity to win the game. So, it’s still got some meaning.
- Castellanos now has a 7-game hitting streak, six since the home batting cage session. He was in a dreadful slump in July, but since he went to his hometown of Miami, Castellanos has three homers, is hitting .280 and has a .948 OPS. He had a majestic blast Sunday.
- Filling in for the injured Brandon Marsh, Johan Rojas had two hits including a bunt single, and perfectly executed a rundown that led to an insurance run in the seventh inning, as he stayed in the pickle long enough to allow the runners behind him to advance to second and third.
- Bryson Stott only had one hit, but it was the first opposite field homer of his career. And it was a wall scraper.
- Finally, the Phillies start a four-game series tonight with Washington. If you’re going, be prepared to get wet. It’s possible they call this one and it gets made up as part of a doubleheader this week, but there might also be enough time in between the raindrops to play. We’ll see, but this doesn’t look great.