Kyle Schwarber continued his historic home run surge Tuesday night with a a pair of solo homers to power the Philadelphia Phillies to a 10-0 win over the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series.
The Phillies have collected 12 extra-base hits — six homers and six doubles — while taking a 2-0 series lead in the best-of-seven matchup. Game 3 is scheduled for Thursday afternoon in Phoenix.
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.
The Phillies are 7-1 this postseason and have outscored the opposition 46-13.
Trea Turner, the second batter of the game, homered for the Phillies against Merrill Kelly (1-1) before Schwarber hit solo shots in the third and sixth to extend the lead.
Schwarber, who hit one of the Phillies’ three homers in Monday night’s 5-3 win, has 10 homers in 21 LCS games dating back to his rookie season with the Chicago Cubs in 2015. That’s tied for second all-time in LCS play with Albert Pujols and behind only Manny Ramirez (13).
Schwarber has nine homers overall in 25 postseason games for the Phillies, fourth-most in franchise history Bryce Harper and Chase Utley (10 apiece) and Jayson Werth (11).
The Phillies pulled away without the long ball in the sixth, when J.T. Realmuto had a two-run double and scored on Brandon Marsh’s double, and in the seventh when Alec Bohm ripped a two-RBI double and Realmuto delivered a run-scoring single before Nick Castellanos lofted a sacrifice fly.
Aaron Nola (3-0) cruised to the victory after allowing three hits and walking none while striking out seven over six innings. The Diamondbacks, who were shut out in a postseason game for the first time in team history, got just two runners as far as second base against Nola and a trio of relievers.
Ketel Marte had two of the Diamondbacks’ four hits.
Kelly gave up four runs on three hits and three walks while striking out six over 5 2/3 innings.
–Field Level Media