As you very well know by now, Kyle Schwarber became the second Phillie in franchise history to hit 50 home runs in a season on Tuesday night with his blast to center field, joining Ryan Howard who hit a franchise-record 58 in 2006. It’s been a long road to fifty homers, but Schwarber’s magical season isn’t over yet.
The Phillies have sixteen games remaining in the regular season including tonight’s game against the Mets. Schwarber is sitting at 50 home runs, eight shy of Howard’s record of 58. He’s
been in a bit of a funk of late, as his 50th homer was his only this month and first since his four-homer game on August 28th. Despite that outburst, Schwarber is hitting just .184 with a .776 OPS over his last 30 games played entering Wednesday.
Back in 2006, Ryan Howard hit the 50-home run mark on September 3rd when he hit three home runs in game one of a doubleheader against the Braves. Those two games accounted for games 136 and 137 on the season for the Phillies. They were games 133 and 134 of the season for Howard himself. The Phillies still had 25 games left to play the day after Howard reached 50 home runs. He played in all 25 of those games and reached the record 58 home runs on September 22nd, sixteen games after that doubleheader and in game 153 of the regular season. Howard played in the final nine games of the season but did not homer again, thus leaving the record at 58.
Schwarber hit number 50 in game 145 of the regular season, and he has played in all of them. He is behind Howard’s pace by 12 games and is running out of time to make up the difference. Of course, Schwarber is capable of hitting homers in bunches, as his four-home run game proved. Nevertheless, he would have to play in all 16 remaining games and hit at least eight home runs over that span just to tie the record. But Schwarber has hit eight home runs in a 16-game span on nine different occasions this year, with the most recent one stretching from July 25th to August 11th.
So, will Kyle Schwarber break Ryan Howard’s record? Or will he come up short? What do you predict will be Schwarber’s final home run count for the 2025 regular season?
