PHILADELPHIA -- What's the best way to one-up hitting a 456-foot home run?
Hit a 457-foot home run in the same inning.
Well, that's exactly what Kyle Schwarber did in the third inning of Saturday night's 15-3 win against the Mets at Citizens Bank Park.
As if that weren’t enough, Schwarber added a third home run for his fifth career three-homer game. That's one shy of the all-time record, shared by Mookie Betts, Johnny Mize and Sammy Sosa.
Not even Schwarber -- who increased his MLB-leading home run total to 28 -- had done what he did in the third inning, though.
Schwarber led off the inning with a majestic second-deck blast off Mets starter Freddy Peralta. Later in that same frame, Schwarber welcomed lefty reliever Cionel Pérez to the game by smashing a nearly identical home run -- albeit 1 foot farther and with two men on base.
Put it all together and that's: one inning, two homers, four RBIs -- and 913 feet of distance covered.
“Yeah, that was cool,” Schwarber said. “First time I've done that in my career.”
Schwarber wasn’t the only Phillie crossing off a first on Saturday night, though.
Bryce Harper recorded his first career cycle -- one that required Schwarber to score from first on Harper’s fifth-inning triple. That play clinched just the 11th cycle in franchise history.
When Schwarber then hit his third homer of the night two innings later, the duo joined an even more exclusive club.
The Phillies became just the second team in MLB history to have teammates record a three-homer game and a cycle in the same game. The other was the Yankees on June 3, 1932, in a game also played in Philadelphia. On that day, Lou Gehrig hit four home runs and Tony Lazzeri hit for the cycle in a 20-13 victory at Shibe Park.
“We were wondering that in the dugout; we didn't think there was going to be two other guys that did it,” Harper said. “But to have those two names up against ours is pretty cool. So it's a pretty awesome moment for both of us.”
It all came in support of starter Cristopher Sánchez, who -- despite being no stranger to making history this season -- was happy to defer to his teammates this time around.
“They stole the show from me tonight, that’s for sure,” said a laughing Sánchez via a team interpreter. “It was perfect. I’ll take it.”
In a way, Schwarber and Harper were seemingly stealing the show from one another all night. Harper homered in the first, then Schwarber hit two in the third -- only to have Harper complete the cycle in the fifth.
Harper knew he was about to pass the baton back to Schwarber in the seventh.
“I said to K-Long before his third one, ‘He’s going to go deep right here. There's no doubt in my mind,’” Harper said, referring to hitting coach Kevin Long. “Just because that's who he is, man. … It's very impressive to be able to watch that.”
As for Schwarber’s two-homer inning, he became just the fourth player in franchise history to hit two in a single inning, joining Trea Turner (Aug. 19, 2023), Von Hayes (June 11, 1985) and Andy Seminick (June 2, 1949).
Schwarber is the second big leaguer to accomplish the feat this season. Houston's Yordan Alvarez -- whose 24 homers are second most behind Schwarber -- hit two in the first inning on June 12.
Schwarber, though, left no doubt about either of his home runs. The 456-footer came off his bat at 109.1 mph. The 457-footer had an exit velocity of 111.1 mph.
Not surprisingly, Schwarber is the only player since Statcast began tracking in 2015 to hit multiple 450-foot homers in the same inning. But only eight other players have hit multiple 450-foot home runs in the same game, let alone the same frame -- and three of those eight came at Coors Field.
And how about this? Only one player (the Astros’ Cam Smith) has multiple 456-foot home runs this entire season. Schwarber did it in less than an hour.
Since the start of last season, Schwarber has nine home runs of at least 450 feet (including the postseason). No other player has more than four such homers during that span.
“It's a lot of fun seeing him hit and do his thing,” Harper said. “The fans love it. I love it. Our whole team does. It’s just really cool.”