WATCH: Kyle Schwarber Clubs 2 More Home Runs To Continue Pace To Join Ryan Howard As Only Phillies To Do This
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Kyle Schwarber is on pace to do something only Ryan Howard has done in Phillies history. Hit 50 home runs.
Schwarber clubbed two more home runs on Tuesday night, his 24th and 25th homers of the season, respectively. He's now on pace to finish the season with 51 dingers, which would put him in the same sentence as Howard as the only two Phillies ever to hit 50 or more homers in a single season.
Schwarber's 25 homers are now second to Aaron Judge's 29 in all of baseball and are the most in the National League.
Howard became the first Phillie ever to hit 50 homers in 2006, when he cranked 58 in his MVP season.
The 29-year-old Schwarber led things off with his third leadoff home run of the season to give the Phillies a 1-0 lead in the first inning vs the Nationals Tuesday night.
Sidebar, Jimmy Rollins has the most leadoff homers by a Phillie in a single season, clubbing nine in 2007. Another fun fact, Rollins also had six leadoff homers in 2012, five in 2009 and four in 2004, 2005 and 2006. Only nine times has a Phillie had four or more leadoff homers in a season and six of those belong to Rollins.
In his second at-bat, Schwarber followed it up with another moonshot, this time pulling it into the second deck in right field.
Hat-tip to the NBC Sports Philadelphia broadcast, Schwarber's 25 homers are now tied with Hall of Fame third baseman and Phillies legend Mike Schmidt for third-most by a Phillie through the team's first 81 games in the past 50 years. Howard's 28 homers in 2006 are the most, followed by Jim Thome's 27 in 2004.
Schwarber, in his first season with the Phillies, was named the NL Player of the Month for June after he hit .272/.382/.680 with 12 homers, 27 runs, six doubles, 27 RBI, 19 walks and two stolen bases in 27 games. It was the second straight year Schwarber won the Player of the Month honor for June. Last year, while a member of the Nationals, Schwarber hit .280/.362/.760 with 16 homers and 30 RBI in June.
His June numbers were atop the Nationals' Twitter account's mind Tuesday night.
What will Schwarber do next? Stay tuned. At the time of publishing, there were still five more innings left in Tuesday night's game vs. Washington.
