Harper, Schwarber open NLCS with a bang
SAN DIEGO — Bryce Harper hit another postseason home run — no surprise there — and then Kyle Schwarber topped him by launching a shot that amazed even his teammates.
Harper hit his fourth homer this postseason, and Schwarber hit a jaw-dropping, 488-foot drive that carried the Philadelphia Phillies over the San Diego Padres 2-0 on Tuesday night to open the all-wild card NL Championship Series.
Zack Wheeler was awesome, too, combining with two relievers on a one-hitter for Philadelphia. The Phillies managed just three hits off Yu Darvish and the San Diego bullpen — the combined four hits matched the fewest ever in a postseason game.
The Phillies will try to take a 2-0 lead when they send Aaron Nola to the mound to oppose Blake Snell on Wednesday afternoon. Nola is set to pitch against his brother, Padres catcher Austin Nola.
“I thought Darvish was really good, and we couldn’t get much going, but Harper, three straight games with a home run, and Schwarber’s game was just completely flush,” Philadelphia manager Rob Thomson said. “I mean, with the great pitching we had tonight, that’s all we needed.”
Harper, trying to reach his first World Series, hit a high-arcing, opposite-field shot into the first row in left field with one out in the fourth. It was the fourth homer this postseason for Harper, who was playing in San Diego for the first time since his left thumb was broken when he was hit by a pitch from Snell on June 25, sidelining him for two months.
Harper, the two-time NL MVP who won the award last year, has hit nine homers in 26 career postseason games.
Schwarber’s incredible shot on Darvish’s first pitch of the sixth had an exit velocity of 119.7 mph — the hardest-hit ball in any postseason since Statcast began tracking in 2015 — and was the first to reach the right field upper deck at Petco Park, which opened in 2004. It was the farthest in his career and the farthest at Petco in the Statcast Era and gave the Phillies a 2-0 lead.
Schwarber, who led the NL with 46 homers this season but was in a 1-for-20 postseason slump coming in, raised his right arm as he rounded first base and Harper stood in the dugout with his mouth agape in amazement.
“I thought it got pretty small pretty fast,” said Harper, who’s in his first NLCS. “I’ve never seen a ball go up in that section in Petco Park. Just very impressive.”
And then some.
“A lot of people just looked at me weird,” Schwarber said about the reaction he got in the dugout. “It was a cool moment, but I’m happy that we got the win overall.”
Wheeler, who struck out eight over seven innings, said he was in the tunnel just off the dugout, “but I heard everybody sort of take off, so I ran up the stairs and I saw it land, and that was pretty crazy,” the pitcher said. “I’ve never even seen that done in batting practice or anything.”
Padres catcher Austin Nola said, “That ball was hit as far as I’ve ever seen.
It was left over the middle — it was up in the zone. He put a good swing on it.”
Darvish said it wasn’t a mistake pitch to Harper, but added, “For Schwarber that is on me, that is my mistake. I knew he was waiting on something offspeed. The ball kind of went into the middle area and he got the most of it,” he said through an interpreter.
The Padres, who eliminated the 111-win Dodgers in the NLDS, had only four baserunners, including a single by Wil Myers in the fifth. Still, they had a chance to win in the ninth against José Alvarado.
Jurickson Profar drew a one-out walk and Juan Soto reached when third baseman Alec Bohm made an errant throwing trying for a force. Manny Machado flied out and Alvarado struck out Josh Bell for the save, looking skyward and clapping after getting the final out.
The long balls by Harper and Schwarber were the latest impressive home runs for the Phillies, who are back in the playoffs for the first time since 2011. The last won the World Series in 2008. They’ve hit eight homers in seven games this postseason.