Schwarber, Sánchez, Turner fuel Phils' sweep of Rox

PHILADELPHIA -- Cristopher Sánchez does not have to face Kyle Schwarber, and for that, he is thankful.

“Thank God he is on our side,” he said.

Schwarber hit two home runs in Wednesday night’s 7-6 victory over the Rockies at Citizens Bank Park, completing a series sweep as the Phillies improved to 11-8. For the first time this season, they scored five-plus runs in consecutive games. Everybody expected it to happen earlier, but most expect it to happen more often over the season’s remaining 143 games.

“We know who we are in this room,” Schwarber said. “I think you’re going to get better versions of players as we keep going throughout this year. There’s a lot of guys who have been staples in this game for a long time, and I think it’s going to be really cool to see a lot of these guys who are younger and going to be making their name in the game and seeing where they end up. That’s the cool thing for us.”

Schwarber hit the 34th leadoff homer of his career in the first inning to tie the game at 1-1. The ball left his bat at 110.8 mph and traveled a projected 432 feet to right-center field.

It was the 250th homer of his career.

“Hopefully there’s more to come,” he said. “I think all the accomplishments in this game, I think they mean a little more when you’re done, it’s over and you’re on the couch watching baseball.”

Trea Turner followed with a homer to left to give the Phillies a 2-1 lead. Turner has an extra-base hit in five consecutive games. He is batting .425 (17-for-40) with four doubles, two home runs, four RBIs and a 1.152 OPS in his last 10.

“Usually, I’m like, well, I’m not hitting a homer if he did because back-to-backs usually aren’t happening,” Turner said. “I think scoring that run immediately just puts a lot of pressure on those guys. I know we gave up one, but to get it back immediately was huge. I’m just trying to take my at-bat and whatever that turns into. But, yeah, the momentum was in the first. The at-bats by everybody. I just thought we hit the ball well in general.”

The Phils scored two more runs in the first inning to make it 4-1. They scored another run in the fifth to make it 5-1.

Schwarber followed Johan Rojas’ one-out double with a two-run homer to right in the sixth to take a 7-1 lead. It was Schwarber’s first multi-homer game since Aug. 18, 2023. It was the 26th of his career.

It also was his 16th career multi-homer game out of the leadoff spot, which ranks fourth in baseball history behind Mookie Betts (26), George Springer (20) and Alfonso Soriano (19).

It was more than plenty for Phillies left-hander Cristopher Sánchez. He followed Ranger Suárez’s shutout Tuesday and Aaron Nola’s splendid start Monday with one unearned run in six innings. He allowed five hits and one walk and struck out 10. He got 17 swings and misses, the third-highest mark of his career.

“Sanchy was great,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “A lot of strikes, locating his fastball, back-of-the plate sliders that they were swinging through. A good changeup. A lot of swing and miss. Great poise. He really pitched well.”

Phillies starters in the series allowed one earned run in 22 1/3 innings. They struck out 27 and walked three.

The rotation has pitched well all year. It has a 2.54 ERA. But the offense finally clicked the past two nights, with Schwarber leading the way on Wednesday. He joins Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge as the only active players to hit at least 250 homers in their first 1,000 career games.

A reporter asked Schwarber, who's played in 998 games, if he had thought about reaching other milestones, like 400 or even 500 homers.

“We’ll see whenever that last day is,” he said. “I’m really more focused on getting another championship ring. More than one. Don’t get me wrong, there’s obviously accomplishments you want to reach in the game, but for me, being able to have a ring and reach that goal, there’s just nothing that can top that. We’ve been close here a couple times. I want to get there this year with this group.”