June 21, 2026
Kyle Ross/IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Kyle Schwarber is at 29 homers with a few weeks still left to the All-Star break. He had 30 homers by last year's break.
Kyle Schwarber took a moment to watch as he sent another baseball rocketing toward the second deck in right field.
A night after homering three times to crush the visiting and rival Mets, 15-3, the Phillies' star slugger got a hold of a second-inning fastball on Sunday night to do it again.
And a night after hitting for the cycle, Bryce Harper stepped up and followed up with a first-pitch double that he lined into right field.
Schwarber left Sunday night with a major league-leading 29 home runs on the season, with a few weeks still left until the All-Star Break in mid-July.
Harper, after falling into a 1-for-22 rut over his previous seven games, went off for an all-time Phillies performance at the plate on Saturday night – a cycle that was completed by the fifth inning – then carried it straight into Sunday with another extra-base knock, a fifth-inning solo shot, and a seventh-inning single that left him just a triple shy of a second straight cycle.
Even Trea Turner, after making a return to the leadoff spot with the finale of the Miami series earlier this week, had gone 5 for his last 11 across his previous three games entering Sunday night, then went on to draw an opening walk and a second-inning single that set the table for Schwarber's fourth homer in two games.
The top of the Philadelphia order is hot, and so are the Phillies on the whole, who beat the Mets again on Sunday night, 6-2, to take another two of three at Citizens Bank Park and to finish their homestand with wins in four of six, and all against NL East foes.
They're 12-6 this month, 30-16 since the start of May, and are continuing their climb back up the standings at 42-35 overall.
And now the big names they're depending on are all starting to take over.
ANOTHER second-deck homer for Kyle Schwarber 😱 pic.twitter.com/cyd5k9q1zk
— MLB (@MLB) June 22, 2026
Schwarber is crushing the ball as the summer temperatures pick up, Harper is swinging the bat like an MVP, and Turner, hopefully, is finding his rhythm as a leadoff man again.
The Phillies need them.
They need Cristopher Sánchez and Zack Wheeler at the top of their rotation, too, who each remained brilliant in their respective starts on Saturday and Sunday – Sánchez pitched 6.0 innings of one-run ball, then Wheeler battled to two runs through 5.2 innings, where he tried to even fully fight through a bases-loaded jam in the sixth before interim manager Don Mattingly finally took the ball with two outs.
Zack Wheeler looks back to form with a 2.11 ERA so far in 2026.
Kyle Ross/IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
And they still need everything and everyone that has kept them afloat before this, from Brandon Marsh making a serious All-Star bid to Jesús Luzardo stepping up with consistently solid starts, Bryson Stott's quiet .325 batting average since the Toronto series, and Mattingly seemingly pressing all the right buttons from the dugout and in the clubhouse ever since he was promoted in the interim over Rob Thomson.
They need all of it – to make up the still steep, but a lot more manageable, 6.5-game gap behind the Braves for first in the NL East, absolutely, but to also prove that this won't be a club that falls short in October again.
There's a lot of work still to do to take care of both, and a lot of baseball still to play to see how this will all ultimately shake out.
But right now at least, all the names that are supposed to make the Phillies scary to the rest of the National League have them looking terrifying right now – with every Schwarber moonshot into the second deck, and every hit that Harper has been swinging hard and running even harder on of late.
Back-to-back games with a Bryce Harper homer!
— MLB (@MLB) June 22, 2026
He’s halfway to another cycle 👀 pic.twitter.com/UgppdKV5L8
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