The Phillies paid Kyle Schwarber $79 million this spring to hit home runs and be a voice of experience in an inexperienced clubhouse.
He has done exactly those things as Philadelphia continues to exceed expectations and make a push for a championship.
"I am going to try and get my butt out there on the field whenever I can," Schwarber said after Friday's 4-2 Game 3 win. "For me, if it's a walk, if it's a groundout that scores a run, whatever it is I don't really care. It's all about winning. I told someone I'll keep rolling it over to second base if we keep winning baseball games... It's about trying to get a win at the end of the day and I feel like we all have that mindset and it's great."
The veteran slugger was signed to be the team's DH this season, but he was forced into left field duty with Bryce Harper's elbow injury relegating him to hitting only. Schwarber has embraced the role, and led the National League with 46 home runs in 2022.
Due in part to a knee injury, Schwarber started the postseason slow, with one hit in the first six games. However, he's gotten hot against the Padres. Over the first three games of the NLCS he has four hits, two homers and has an RBI in each game. As an unconventional leadoff man who contributes there via walks and power, setting the tone has been a gift for the Phillies.
"So it's big to get out in front in winning games," Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. "It's also big within the game to get out front, and Schwarber started that whole thing with the home run to lead off the game and got the crowd really into it."
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This is Schwarber's fourth league championship series, and Saturday night's Game 4 will be his 45th career postseason game. A World Series champion way back in 2016 with the Cubs, the 29-year-old left-hander has been blessed with a ton of success wherever he has played. It's something other stars like Bryce Harper and J.T. Realmuto have not been through, and his role as a "been there done that" leader in the locker room is just as important as his one as the Phillies leadoff man.
"This group has really been special, really cool just for the year that we've had," he said Friday night. "To obviously be in the postseason, it's very exciting but to see guys who are really good at their craft, being their first times here and seeing all these young guys getting experience for the first time, I always talk about being able to drawback on experience. That's big. If we can keep doing what were doing, having fun, being relaxed and being ready to take care of business, that's all great."
Schwarber's two homers against the Padres have been absolute behemoths — which is saying something coming off the bat of a regular sized dude. It's fitting that he caught the first pitch Friday from another former slugger with postseason success who wore No. 12 in Matt Stairs.
The difference between the two though, is a bit of humility.
"I never want to talk about how far a home run went," Schwarber said. "I don't care."
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