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Philosophizing on the Schwarbomb, and its Role as a Combination Panacea and Momentum Shifter
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Plenty of great stats floating around after a two-Schwarbomb night in Southern California:
Fox Sports shared another stat, noting that Kyle Schwarber has four of the 11 playoff home runs of 455+ feet since the beginning of the Statcast era, which was 2015. The record belongs to Willson Contreras, who hit a 491 footer in the 2017 NLCS, that ball that was mashed off the Wrigley scoreboard. Then Schwarber’s 488-foot bomb in 2022 is second on the list. The other guys who have done this are Luis Robert, Gary Sanchez, Freddie Freeman (twice), Giancarlo Stanton, and Ronald Acuna Jr.
The two dingers put Schwarber into sole possession of first place on the all-time Phillies postseason home run list. He’s now got 14, Bryce Harper has 12, and then it’s Jayson Werth at 11. Chase Utley has 10 and Ryan Howard 8. Rounding out the top ten is JT Realmuto, Nick Castellanos, Rhys Hoskins, Shane Victorino, and Lenny Dykstra.
More importantly, Schwarber ended a six-game hitless streak going back to the Miami series. He needed to get it going as badly as anyone, and maybe the Schwarbomb was the moment that unlocked Trea Turner (3-5) and Bryce Harper (2-4) as well. If the top three is hitting, the Phillies are winning.
To get somewhat philosophical here without sounding like a jackass, Brett Brown used to discuss “spirit plays” in basketball. Sounds like a cheerleading term, but he was talking about big slam dunks or blocks or transitional moments that get the fans on their feet. They are catalysts of sorts, these big momentum shifters that can change the course of the game by kicking off a run or reviving a dead crowd.
We’d probably all agree that the Schwarbomb fits the bill perfectly, right? You’re in a rut, you don’t have much going offensively, then BLAM! Schwarbs hits one past Jupiter and all four of its moons. Now everybody is loose and feeling some relief. The tightness goes away and guys slide into a bit of a groove and they have the belief that they can compete with this Dodgers team and make it a series. You get the fans up off the couch and pumping their fist into the air, reinvigorated. You give everybody the most dangerous thing in sport, which is hope.
The Schwarbomb is a miracle drug of sorts. It’s the panacea that cures all ills. If the Phils come out firing in Game 4, we can quite easily point to the Game 3 Schwarbomb as an NLDS inflection point.
BTW, if you wanna ride the lightning, have at it:
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com