PHILADELPHIA — It took only a few minutes Sunday night for Kyle Schwarber to calm down after blowing his top on national television over home-plate umpire Ángel Hernández’s strike zone.
Clearly, though, the Phillies slugger thought he’d been wronged.
In that case, consider the events of the third inning Monday night as some form of karma. Schwarber, who struck out with the bases loaded two innings earlier, hit what looked to all in Citizens Bank Park like a rally-ending flyout to right-center field.
Expected batting average on the ball, according to Statcast: .210.
But neither Colorado Rockies right fielder Charlie Blackmon nor center fielder Randal Grichuk seemed to settle under it. The ball fell between them, Schwarber was credited with a two-run double, and the Phillies grabbed a one-run lead en route to an 8-2 victory before an announced crowd of 20,130.
Schwarber needed that. The Phillies did, too. Their three-run rally in the third inning snapped a 17-inning scoreless drought that went back to Saturday. They won for only the fourth time in 13 games.
Amid their sluggish start, the Phillies have insisted they were one fortunate break short of getting hot. It was only a matter of time, they said. And while Schwarber’s fly ball didn’t exactly bust the levee and start a flood of offense, the Phillies did add on late in the game.
Bryce Harper, making his ninth consecutive start as the designated hitter, cracked a fifth-inning solo homer against Rockies lefty Kyle Freeland. Harper launched a sacrifice fly to kick-start a four-run seventh in which Rhys Hoskins scored on a wild pitch and two runs came in on an error by Rockies third baseman Ryan McMahon.
Hoskins, who rode in on a wretched 2-for-24 skid, singled to start the big third inning and notched his first three-hit game since Aug. 5. Ironman catcher J.T. Realmuto got two hits, including a two-out RBI double in the third inning that ended the scoreless streak.
For only the fourth time in 11 games, the Phillies scored more than four runs in a game.
And then there was Schwarber, the $79 million slugger whose first at-bat of the season resulted in a leadoff homer on opening day. Since then, there has been mostly frustration. He came into the series with the Rockies batting .169, with a 30.8% strikeout rate.
Schwarber’s ninth-inning outburst Sunday night, when he slammed his bat down, spiked his helmet, and gestured wildly with both hands at Hernández after getting rung up on strikes, was the tip of the iceberg.
“It just got to me to where I was going to stick up for myself and some other guys,” Schwarber said.
At last, then, he received some good fortune against the Rockies.
Maybe it’s the start of something.
Not so Familia
Six nights after allowing a go-ahead, two-run homer in the seventh inning of a gut-punch loss in Colorado, reliever Jeurys Familia flipped the script on the Rockies.
With the Phillies leading by two runs in the seventh inning, Familia inherited a two-on, none-out jam from Seranthony Domínguez. He got Elias Díaz to fly to right field and Brendan Rodgers to roll into a double play, acrobatically turned by shortstop Johan Camargo.
No ‘courtesy’
After giving up a homer to Atlanta’s Kelly Johnson on the first pitch of a game on April 8, 2009, Jamie Moyer claimed that many hitters take the initial pitch out of “professional courtesy,” a supposedly unwritten rule with which few people were familiar.
The Rockies’ Connor Joe apparently hadn’t heard of it, either.
Joe swatted Kyle Gibson’s first pitch of the game out to left center. Grichuk led off the second inning with a homer. But they were the only hits allowed by Gibson through the first four innings.
Gibson also held the Rockies scoreless from Grichuk’s shot until he exited with two outs in the sixth inning. It was Gibson’s second consecutive solid start against Colorado. He has a 3.47 ERA in four starts overall.
Up next
For the second time in six days, Zach Eflin (0-1, 5.27 ERA) will face Rockies right-hander Germán Márquez (0-0, 4.67) at 6:45 p.m. Tuesday. The Phillies got to Márquez for four runs on eight hits in six innings last Wednesday in Colorado.
