Kyle Schwarber blasts two towering home runs as Phillies roll Padres in series opener

When Trea Turner was placed on the injured list on May 4 with a right hamstring strain, the Phillies did not sink into a multigame slump. They continued to slug, even without one of their best hitters.

Things did not get easier from there. J.T. Realmuto had right knee surgery last week. Kody Clemens is on the injured list with back spasms.

Nick Castellanos entered Monday’s game with a .609 OPS. Alec Bohm is just starting to look like his normal self again, and Bryson Stott has hit .189 over his last 15 starts.

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But despite that, the Phillies held their own, and in Turner’s first game back, the offense looked potent again. Eight of the nine batters in the starting lineup recorded at least one hit. Kyle Schwarber banged not one, but two towering home runs, in a 9-2 win over the Padres.

Turner and Bryce Harper went 2-for-5, Bohm went 3-for-5, and nine-hole hitter Rafael Marchán went 4-for-4. The Phillies scored nine runs on 18 hits — their most hits in a game this season. It was a welcome sight for a lineup that hit .230/.302/.371 from June 1 to 16, with a .673 OPS.

“When you have him back in the two-hole, it just makes the lineup so much more deeper, where there’s going to be threats throughout the whole lineup,” Schwarber said of Turner. “And whenever J.T. is going to get healthy, and we get him back, the lineup is going to be … it’s been a really good lineup. I feel like our guys have done a really good job over the course of this year of when guys have gone down, everyone has stepped in and done a great job.

“And now that you get some of these guys back, I feel like the lineup and even the bench gets so much stronger.”

When Turner walked up to the plate in the first inning, he received a loud ovation from the fans. It was no surprise that he was the focus Monday, but Marchán certainly made a statement.

The Phillies called on him to help replace Realmuto because of his defense behind the plate and his ability to manage a pitching staff, but the backup catcher has stayed afloat offensively. He hit his first home run of the season in his previous start, last Friday, and on Monday, he had the first four-hit game in the big leagues.

He also showed off his pinpoint arm. With one out in the third and Ha-Seong Kim on first base, Phils starter Cristopher Sánchez struck out Kyle Higashioka as Kim took off for second. Marchán quickly fired the ball to Stott in time to catch Kim stealing. In his last stint with the Phils, in 2021, Marchán threw out three of six who tried stealing on him.

“He’s played great,” manager Rob Thomson said of Marchán. “What a great throw. He can really catch, he can really throw. He gets four today — I mean, he must have gone to church this morning — but it’s four hits. So, yeah, he’s a good player.”

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It was a good game from nearly every facet. The Phillies played strong defense, turning four double plays. Sánchez bounced back from a rough outing in Boston, allowing two runs — of which one was earned — on six hits and one walk against the Padres over seven innings of work. He recorded five strikeouts and was efficient with his pitches, throwing 94.

He also induced a lot of groundouts — nine, compared to just two against the Red Sox on June 12.

“Sanchy was great,” Thomson said. “He established his secondary pitches early, he was throwing strikes, he was getting ahead. He went right after the hitters. And when he does that, he’s good. He usually has success.

“[In] his last start in Boston, I didn’t think he established his secondary pitches as well as he did tonight. So, it was a good sign.”

After leaning on his relievers a lot over the last few games, Thomson needed to use only two. José Alvarado pitched a scoreless eighth inning with one strikeout, and José Ruiz allowed just one hit in the ninth.

The game began and ended with Turner, who made the first play of the game and the last. He fielded a groundout from Luis Arraez in the first inning, and made a diving stop to rob Manny Machado of a hit in the ninth inning. It induced a double play for the final two outs.

He wasn’t surprised.

“The first one always finds you,” Turner said. “I think Marsh’s first out of his first inning was to him, also. We notice those things.

“When it was 0-2, I heard sinker away and I was like, ‘Oh, this is coming right to me.’ The last one, I wasn’t necessarily thinking about that, but the first one I knew for sure was coming to me.”