Kyle Schwarber has spent at least part of nine different seasons in the big leagues. He’s played for four different teams. But one thing has remained remarkably consistent.
May is always his cruelest month. For his career, he’s a .186 hitter with a .734 OPS. And April is barely better. He’s a mild-mannered Bruce Banner in the batter’s box.
When the calendar flips to June, though, he becomes the Incredible Hulk. His lifetime numbers are monstrous. His OPS jumps to .958. This year has been no exception. The whole city, it seemed, had an opinion on where he should bat or even if he should be in the lineup at all. Then, just as it does every year, May ended. And, just as he does every year, that’s when Schwarber started doing real damage.
He led off Tuesday night’s game against the Tigers at Citizens Bank Park with a home run off Detroit starter Tyler Alexander. When the game ended, that turned out to be just enough for the Phillies to win their fourth straight, 1-0.
Sunday in Washington he had two homers and drove in six runs. The Phillies public relations department has determined that of the 1,896 big league players since 1900 who have at least 500 plate appearances in the month, only 10 have a career slugging percentage over .600. Eight are in the Hall of Fame. The other two are Mike Trout and Schwarber.
The media guide has a breakout section with his biography that’s titled, simply. mr. June.
And how does Schwarber explain his ability to turn it on when the weather heats up?
He doesn’t. “I don’t know. It must be like a coincidence or something,” he said with a shrug. “I wish it wasn’t like this. But it is what it is.”
Right. A coincidence. Kind of like what former Phillies manager Jim Fregosi used to say about Hall of Fame righthander Nolan Ryan. “He’s the luckiest SOB who ever lived. Every time he pitches, the other team doesn’t score any runs.”
A quick scan of the box score might suggest that the Phillies offense, which had scored a total of 30 runs in the previous four games, had gone AWOL on Tuesday, a game in which they faced a Tigers team forced to get through the night with a bullpen game. That would not be entirely accurate.
Four Phillies batters hit balls that were caught on the warning track: Bryce Harper in the first, Kody Clemens in the third and Trea Turner and JT Realmuto in the fourth. There was a persistent wind blowing in most of the night which could have kept one of more of the drive sin the park.
Brandon Marsh scalded a line drive towards the gap in right-center that was intercepted by a diving catch by second baseman Zack Short, who then easily doubled Bryson Stott off first.
The next batter, Drew Ellis, was robbed on a diving catch by leftfielder Akil Baddoo. And Short took a hit away from Clemens with a dazzling stop in the ninth.
It was one of those nights and it could have cost the Phillies the game. Fortunately for them, it’s June.
RHP Reese Olsen (0-1, 3.60) is scheduled to face RHP Zack Wheeler (4-4, 4.33) in the series finale Wednesday night.
Reliever Jose Alvarado (0.63 ERA in 14 games) allowed two runs on three hits in a one-inning rehab stink Tuesday night for Double-A Reading. As long as he came through the outing healthy, he’s expected to be activated before Friday night’s game against the Dodgers at Citizens Bank Park.