Kyle Schwarber’s titanic homer punctuates Phillies’ star-fueled 2-0 win over Padres in NLCS opener

SAN DIEGO — Yu Darvish didn’t look. Juan Soto never moved. Bryce Harper’s jaw dropped so far that his chin nearly scraped the floor of the dugout.

How did you react Tuesday night when Kyle Schwarber hit a ball halfway to the moon — or at least to Tijuana?

The Phillies eked out a 2-0 victory over the San Diego Padres in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series after reliever José Alvarado kept his cool while all hell broke loose around him in a tense ninth inning before 44,826 towel-waving fans at Petco Park.

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But the latest win in the Phillies’ magical postseason run was in the stars because it was about the stars.

Zack Wheeler overcame early nerves to hold the Padres to one hit and one walk in seven scoreless innings, his third gem in as many playoff starts. Harper skied his third home run in as many games into the first row in left field in the fourth inning.

And then there was Schwarber, who provided the forever moment from the Phillies’ first NLCS appearance since 2010 by annihilating a first-pitch cutter from Darvish into the second deck in right field in the sixth inning. It was the hardest-hit (119.7 mph) and second-farthest (488 feet) ball on record in the playoffs in the Statcast era (since 2015).

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“That was pretty crazy,” Wheeler said. “I’ve never even seen that done in batting practice or anything.”

Said Harper: “I’ve never seen a ball go up in that section of Petco Park. Just very impressive. Just wow.”

And from Rhys Hoskins: “It looked like somebody on a driving range taking a driver. Seriously. The ball got so small so fast. It was one of those that you didn’t need to look at. You just hear it. But man, I’ve been coming here five years and I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone sniff the second deck.”

For years, team officials dreamed of a night — nay, an October-long run — like this, if only the Phillies could deepen the roster enough to get into the tournament. Because the postseason is about stars, and since 2019, the Phillies’ collection of stars has rivaled a planetarium.

They’ve all had their moments this month, from Nick Castellanos’ sliding catch in Game 1 of the divisional round and Hoskins’ bat-spike homer in Game 3, to J.T. Realmuto’s Game 4 inside-the-park homer and Aaron Nola’s clinching gem in the wild-card series. Nobody in these playoffs is hotter than Harper, 11-for-27 with four homers and a 1.411 OPS.

Now, with the Phillies clinging to a 1-0 lead, it was Schwarber’s turn.

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Schwarber entered the series in a 1-for-20 slide with eight strikeouts. But there were encouraging signs early in the game. He worked a six-pitch walk in the first inning and shot a single to right field in the third.

Manager Rob Thomson has remained consistent with the lineup since taking over on June 3, so there was no consideration of removing Schwarber from the leadoff spot. Besides, he believes the NL home-run king is always one swing from emerging from a slump.

And what a swing it was.

“I would have took it if it went in the first row,” Schwarber said. “I really don’t care. A point is a point. It doesn’t feel like anything, I guess. That’s probably the good thing is that your hands don’t hurt at the end of it.”

Maybe compared to the ears that were ringing from the sound of it.

Add it to the list of legendary Schwarber flexes, headed by his blast that landed on the roof at Wrigley Field in the 2015 playoffs with the Cubs. Only Willson Contreras, Schwarber’s former teammate in Chicago, has hit one farther in the playoffs since 2015, a 491-footer in the 2017 NLCS.

Schwarber, who hit more homers (46) this season than any player other than New York Yankees star Aaron Judge, almost seemed embarrassed by this latest power display, which sent the Phillies’ dugout into a frenzy.

“A lot of people just looked at me weird,” Schwarber said. “But yeah, it was cool. Cool moment.”

Clutch, too. It provided breathing room for Wheeler, who noted that his velocity began to dip in the seventh inning. Thomson turned to the bullpen, even though Wheeler threw only 83 pitches in what Padres manager Bob Melvin called “probably as good a pitching performance we’ve seen all year.”

“[Velocity] was going down a little bit. I think that was why we made that decision,” Wheeler said. “We had the guys in the bullpen to kind of be able to do that. I think we were all comfortable with it.”

Things got hairy in the ninth. With one out, Alvarado walked Jurickson Profar before Soto reached on an errant throw by third baseman Alec Bohm to bring Padres MVP candidate Manny Machado to the plate as the winning run.

Thomson, not pitching coach Caleb Cotham, came to the mound for a conference. As usual, the mild-mannered manager calmed everything down.

Seven pitches later, it was all over. Alvarado got Machado to pop out and struck out Josh Bell.

Then, the conversation shifted back to the three victories that separate the Phillies from their first World Series appearance since 2009 and eighth in franchise history. They are doing it as they intended: with star turns from their superstars.

» READ MORE: Phillies-Padres: NLCS Game 1 highlights, postgame reaction, analysis

And, at last, a Schwarbomb.

“Even though it’s just a solo shot, to score a run in that way, so emphatically, a little bit later in the game, I’m guessing it feels like more than one run,” Hoskins said. “Huge swing.”