PHILADELPHIA -- Kyle Schwarber is once again putting Ryan Howard on notice.
Schwarber spent last summer chasing Howard's single-season franchise home run record (58 in 2006) before ultimately settling for a career-best 56 homers.
Well, it might be time to fire up the Schwarber tracker for 2026.
Schwarber clubbed a pair of homers in Sunday afternoon's 6-0 victory over the Rockies at Citizens Bank Park. It extended his home run streak to four games and his season total to 16 -- tied with Yankees superstar Aaron Judge for the most in MLB.
And with 16 homers through 41 games, that puts Schwarber on pace for 63 home runs this season.
Schwarber's four-game homer streak is the longest by a Phillie since Trea Turner homered in five straight games from Aug. 28-Sept. 2, 2023. It also matches the longest of Schwarber's career (July 15-18, 2023).
“I feel OK,” Schwarber said.
Just OK?
“I feel like there's obviously been some good results, you know?” Schwarber said. “There's still some more things that I want to work on and cut out. But obviously, today's a good result day.”
Schwarber didn’t wait long on Sunday to extend his streak, jumping all over a first-inning fastball from Rockies starter Tomoyuki Sugano. Schwarber crushed it a Statcast-projected 432 feet to straightaway center for a solo homer.
Bryce Harper followed with a shot of his own into the right-center-field bullpen as the Phillies took a 2-0 lead on back-to-back blasts. That was more than enough for Cristopher Sánchez, who turned in his second straight scoreless outing.
Just one inning later, Schwarber hit an absolute rope off Sugano, lining a first-pitch splitter into the right-field seats for his second homer of the game. That put Schwarber alone atop the MLB home run leaderboard, albeit only temporarily as Judge slugged his 16th just minutes later in Milwaukee.
“It's insane,” said outfielder Brandon Marsh. “I don't want to say it's to the point where we expect it, but it's like, ‘Oh, another one. Another one.’ It's special.”
Marsh, meanwhile, sits atop an MLB leaderboard of his own. With a 4-for-4 day in Sunday’s series finale, he’s now hitting an MLB-leading .353.
“That's pretty freaking cool,” Marsh said when asked about his reaction to leading the Majors. “It’s been a lot of fun. Just got to keep going.”
The same goes for the Phillies.
Sunday's win clinched their fourth series victory in as many tries since making their managerial change on April 28. They've gone 10-3 overall under interim manager Don Mattingly to move to 19-22 on the season.
The Phillies will have their first scheduled off-day under Mattingly on Monday, followed by a three-game series in Boston beginning on Tuesday. Former Phillies left-hander Ranger Suarez is slated to start Thursday’s series finale.
“The second we leave, today doesn't matter, you know?” Marsh said. “But we’ve got to move on to Boston now, and take a series there against a tough team. So that's what we focus on.”
One thing that would certainly help the Phillies as they continue to trek toward getting back to the .500 mark? Schwarber continuing his own trek toward Howard’s record.
Good news for both Schwarber and the Phillies: He’s absolutely raked at Fenway Park, the place he called home to finish the 2021 season as a member of the Red Sox.
Overall, Schwarber is a career .319 hitter with a 1.083 OPS in 30 games at Fenway, including the postseason. He has nine home runs in those 30 games -- an average of one every about three games.
“He's been tremendous,” Marsh said. “And we're gonna have to keep relying on him.”