Schwarber's 1,000th career hit is -- what else? -- a Schwarbomb

NEW YORK -- Of course Kyle Schwarber's 1,000th career hit was a Schwarbomb. And he wasn't about to stop at just one.

Schwarber crushed two rocket home runs to spark the Phillies to a come-from-behind, 12-5 win over the Yankees in Friday night's series opener at Yankee Stadium.

The Phillies slugger reached the 1,000-hit milestone with his first homer of the game -- a 113.8 mph, game-tying shot in the fifth inning.

"It's just a joy to play the game," Schwarber said afterward, reflecting on No. 1,000. "I've enjoyed this game ever since I was a kid, growing up in Middletown, [Ohio], watching the Reds and seeing [Ken] Griffey, [Barry] Larkin, all these guys playing. And now that you get to be here and you do it, you do realize that you're doing what you wanted to do since you were a kid. So I don't ever take that for granted."

Schwarber’s second home run was even harder than his first -- 115 mph off the bat to give the Phillies a pair of insurance runs in the eighth. His prodigious power keeps leaving his own team in awe.

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"Oh, man," Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. "I've said it all along: I don't know where we'd be without him. He comes up with big hit after big hit after big hit. It's amazing."

The two Schwarbombs sandwiched the most clutch hit of the game: J.T. Reamuto's no-doubt, tiebreaking three-run homer to deep left-center field that put Philadelphia ahead to stay in the seventh. The Phillies’ offense erupted in the late innings, scoring 10 total runs across the seventh, eighth and ninth.

Schwarber's first home run was the 319th of his career, the most by any player in MLB history at the time of his 1,000th career hit. Mark McGwire is next with 311 homers at the time of his 1,000th hit, followed by Aaron Judge, who had 308 homers when he got his 1,000th hit last year.

"Honestly, I don't know if that's a good thing or not," Schwarber joked after the game, referring to home runs accounting for such a large share of his hits.

Somehow, with a sold-out crowd of 47,018 in the Bronx – nearly all of them raucous Yankees fans – Schwarber hit his milestone homer straight to three Phillies fans sitting next to the bullpen in right-center field.

After the game, Schwarber came out to meet those Phillies fans in the tunnel outside Philadelphia’s clubhouse. They wanted to bring him the milestone baseball. All they asked for in exchange was an autographed baseball for each of them – which Schwarber happily gave them – and just one more small thing:

For Schwarber to please, please, please sign back with the Phillies next year.

"I think it's great," said Schwarber, a free agent after this season. "It's been fantastic these last 3 1/2 years, four years now, the support that we get from our fans. It means a lot to me that they attach themselves to our team. We can feel that support and always appreciate it."

And of course the Phillies’ fans want Schwarber back. He has been spectacular ever since he arrived in Philadelphia in 2022, with four straight seasons of at least 35 home runs.

Schwarber's two-homer game against the Yankees, the 33rd multihomer game of his career, brought him to 36 home runs this season. He's just one behind the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani for the National League lead.

"What he's meant to this team and this offense," Realmuto said, "it's hard to put into words."

Eleven of Schwarber's home runs this season have been hit at 110 mph or harder. He's one of four players with at least 10 such homers, along with Ohtani (16), the Nationals’ James Wood (13) and Judge (12).

Schwarber has homered in three straight games, and he has six home runs in seven games since the All-Star break -- when he, of course, led the NL to victory with three home runs in three swings in the Home Run Derby-style swingoff.

It's a common conspiracy theory among baseball fans that the Home Run Derby ruins sluggers' swings. Schwarber was asked after Friday's win if the All-Star swingoff had the opposite effect -- if it was the cause of this home run surge after the break.

Schwarber just chuckled at that idea. But there's no denying that he's absolutely red hot.

"Schwarber's a monster right now," Thomson said.