NEW YORK -- The race to 400 home runs is officially on between a pair of Phillies superstars.
One day after Bryce Harper inched closer to the milestone, Kyle Schwarber stayed on his heels with a massive go-ahead two-run homer in Sunday afternoon's 5-4 win over the Mets at Citi Field. Schwarber's seventh-inning blast -- his MLB-leading 30th of the season -- proved to be the difference as the Phillies (47-37) won their fourth straight series (and seventh of their past eight).
Schwarber became the fastest Phillies player to reach the 30-homer plateau, needing only 84 team games to do so. The previous mark was held by Mike Schmidt, who hit his 30th homer in game No. 87 of the 1979 season.
Schwarber is now on pace to hit 59 home runs this season -- a number that would surpass Ryan Howard's single-season franchise record of 58 in 2006. Harper, meanwhile, is on pace to hit 36.
Incredibly, that puts both Schwarber and Harper on pace to finish the season with exactly 399 career home runs.
As it stands now, Schwarber has 370. Harper has 382.
“Everyone always asks me, ‘Hey, how many home runs are you gonna hit this year?’ And I’m just like, ‘Man, come on, I don’t know, guys,’” Schwarber joked recently. “I don't like to put numbers on myself. I just want to go up and have the best at-bat for the team; not ever make it about myself.”
Well, it's safe to say he helped both causes with one swing on Sunday.
With one on and the Phillies trailing by a run after letting a two-run lead slip away in the bottom of the sixth, Schwarber promptly restored the lead in the top of the seventh when he unloaded on a 1-2 fastball from Kodai Senga. The ball left Schwarber's bat at 108.3 mph and traveled a Statcast-projected 408 feet to right-center field.