KYLE Schwarber is homering at a rate rarely seen in postseason history.
Unfortunately for the Arizona Diamondbacks, they’ve got a lot more to worry about with the Philadelphia Phillies than just Schwarber.
The Phillies remained red-hot Tuesday night (Wednesday in Manila), when Schwarber homered twice, and Philadelphia racked up seven extra-base hits on its way to a 10-0 win over the visiting Diamondbacks in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series.
The defending NL champion Phillies lead the best-of-seven series two games to none.
Game 3 is scheduled for Thursday afternoon in Arizona (Friday in Manila).
Seventy-five of the 89 teams to take a 2-0 lead in a best-of-seven series have won the series. Since the wild card was implemented in 1995, only three teams–the 1996 Atlanta Braves in the World Series, the 2004 New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series and the 2020 Braves in the NLCS–have squandered a 2-0 lead in a best-of-seven set.
“I mean, you can’t really draw it up any better than the last two games have gone for us,” Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto said.
The win was the seventh in eight playoff games this month for the Phillies, who have outscored the opposition 46-13. Philadelphia has outscored Arizona 15-3 in the first two games of the NLCS, during which it has homered six times and doubled six times.
Phillies starters Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola combined to allow two runs on six hits with no walks and 15 strikeouts in 12 innings.
“It’s not going to be every day, but the way that these guys are throwing the ball right now, it’s been fantastic,” Schwarber said, “And it makes our jobs a lot easier. And hopefully, as we keep going through this, we can make their jobs a little bit easier, too, by scoring some runs.”
The Diamondbacks, who swept the Milwaukee Brewers in an NL wild-card series and swept the Los Angeles Dodgers in an NL Division Series, endured the first postseason shutout defeat in franchise history on Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila). — Field Level Media
