NLCS: Kyle Schwarber’s 488-foot Homer Inspires Phillies in Game 1 win
PHILADELPHIA — From the moment he stepped to the plate, Kyle Schwarber had only one thought: How will his teammates react to this moment?
It was early in the fourth inning of Game 1 of the National League Championship Series, and the left-handed-hitting infielder was going up against the pitcher who had struck out everyone in the Phillies’ lineup but Schwarber in a 7-2 loss in Game 2.
What would Schwarber have done?
“No, you don’t want to do that,” he says now. “What do you want to do when your teammates, you want them to know how you feel about them? What would that mean? And that’s it. My main thing is going home and doing the things they taught me to do.”
Schwarber would deliver a sacrifice bunt as the Phillies got hitless for the first time in 13 innings. He was the first batter up in the fifth, and his bunt fell in the soft spot of first base. Then, at 2-0, he made an impression with a single and later homered as the Phillies made history by becoming the first NL team to win their first eight games on the road. He was 3-for-4 with six RBIs by the end of the night.
“It’s such a small window of time, and how you react to certain situations is so important,” Schwarber says. “You can hear me screaming in front of everyone going, ‘Oh my God, I’m done!’ But once you put a smile on your face, it’s like a light goes off. Then, you just feel good about the game, and everything else kind of gets overshadowed by that one moment. Just because it goes through your mind, doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing. I like when I get a hit and
