Kyle Schwarber is no stranger to monster home runs. Tuesday night’s Schwarbomb during Philadelphia’s 2–0 win over San Diego in Game 1 of the NLCS might have been his finest work yet.
With the Phillies holding a 1–0 lead thanks to Bryce Harper’s solo homer in the fourth inning, Schwarber dug in against Yu Darvish in the sixth. He wasted no time waiting for his pitch to hit, ambushing the first throw from Darvish and hammering it to right field for an upper-deck blast. Statcast measured it at 488 feet, with an exit velocity of 120 miles per hour, making it the hardest-hit postseason home run on record (Statcast began measuring exit velocities in 2015).
It was the sixth home run allowed by Darvish this postseason. Incredibly, all of them have been solo shots. The righthander eventually made it through seven innings on the night, allowing just three hits and two runs with seven strikeouts.
The homer had to feel especially good for Schwarber, who had been 2-for-21 in the postseason with eight strikeouts prior to that at-bat. The National League’s home run leader has launched some mammoth home runs in the past with both the Cubs and Red Sox, but his first in a Phillies uniform stands above the rest—and helped Philadelphia steal home-field advantage in the NLCS.
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