Kyle Schwarber’s first career home run versus Max Scherzer comes at perfect time

Kyle Schwarber hits first career home run against Max Scherzer to stop strikeout skid

Max Scherzer was steamrolling the Philadelphia Phillies before Kyle Schwarber stepped up to the plate for his first at-bat of the night.

The legendary pitcher had struck out his first five batters faced, and like most of his teammates, Schwarber’s career numbers against Scherzer were pretty meager. In 10 prior plate appearances against the ace, he’d managed four walks, but only one hit, a single.

But this time, with two outs and a 1-1 count, Schwarber delivered.

It’s been a rough weekend for the Phillies, who became the first victims of a (combined) no-hitter on Friday night. Worse, it came against their bitter rivals, and allowed the Mets to check off a new achievement, as it was their first combined no-hitter in franchise history.

For the second time this season, Schwarber has homered in back-to-back games. This is his sixth home run of the season, and four of them were hit in the last 11 games, compared to the two he hit in the first nine contests.

The Phillies saw Schwarber’s power up-close last season, including his monster month of June, when he hit 16 home runs in only 18 games. When the season ended, they hired the hitting coach who helped him transform his swing, Kevin Long, and then signed Schwarber to a four-year deal.

Schwarber’s home run also made good on his declaration last month that “nobody” on the Phillies was “scared” of the Mets.

The Phillies might not be scared, but Max is definitely Mad.