PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Philadelphia slugger Kyle Schwarber hit four home runs Thursday night against Atlanta to become the 21st major leaguer and fourth Phillies player to accomplish the feat.
Schwarber was 4 for 6 with a Phillies-record nine RBIs in the 19-4 victory. He took the outright National League homer lead with 49 and moved within one of Seattle's Cal Raleigh for the major league lead. Schwarber leads the majors with 119 RBIs.
Mike Schmidt was the last Philadelphia player to hit four homers in
a game, doing at the Chicago Cubs in April 1976. Schwarber had the third four-homer game of the season, following Eugenio Suárez and Nick Kurtz.
The Philadelphia star started the power surge with a solo shot in the first off Cal Quantrill, sending a 2-1, curveball into the seats in right field. Schwarber hit a flyout to center in the second.
After Quantrill was lifted with one out and two runners on base in the fourth, Schwarber greeted lefty Austin Cox by sending a 3-2 curveball over the wall in right for his fourth multi-homer game of the season.
With “M-V-P! M-V-P!” chants ringing down from Phillies fans in the fifth, Schwarber launched a three-run, opposite-field drive off Cox to put Philadelphia ahead 15-3. In the seventh, Schwarber hit a three-run shot to right off Wander Suero to make it 18-4.
Schwarber popped out in the eighth.
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