PHILADELPHIA -- Kyle Schwarber’s at-bats have become appointment TV.

Schwarber hammered two home runs Tuesday night in an 11-0 victory over the Nationals at Citizens Bank Park as the Phillies (43-38) moved into the third NL Wild Card spot at the season’s halfway point, one percentage point ahead of the Cardinals (44-39). Schwarber’s play the past five weeks is a big reason why the Phils have surged from eight games below .500 on May 31 to five games above. 500.

“I feel like we’re starting to get to the stride part,” Schwarber said. “Everyone is starting to figure each other out. There are a lot of new faces in here this year. We’re all getting closer as a group. The wins were going to come at some point. We didn’t get off to the start that we wanted to. We wish that we got off to a better start, but it’s the reality of the situation. We didn’t.”

Schwarber hit a leadoff home run to center field in the first inning. It was his third leadoff homer of the year, his 11th since the beginning of last season and the 16th of his career. Only Houston’s José Altuve has hit more leadoff homers (14) since the beginning of 2021. Schwarber then hit a solo homer into the second deck in right field in the third. It was his fourth multihomer game of the season and the 18th of his career. Only the Yankees’ Aaron Judge has more multihomer games this season, with six.

Schwarber set the tone before the Phillies’ offense blew open the game in the middle innings. Cristopher Sánchez, who started in place of Ranger Suárez, pitched five scoreless innings. The bullpen took care of the rest as the Phils tossed consecutive shutouts for the first time since Sept. 1-2, 2020.

“I was actually talking to one of the trainers in the trainer’s room,” Sánchez said. “‘Thank God I have [Schwarber] on my side now.’”

Schwarber leads the National League with 25 homers. They are the most by a Phillies player through the team’s first 81 games since Ryan Howard hit 28 in 2006, when he won the NL MVP. Howard hit a franchise-record 58 that year, becoming the only player in franchise history to hit more than 48 in a season.

“He seems like he’s right in the middle of everything,” Phillies interim manager Rob Thomson said about Schwarber. “Every time we score a run, it seems like he’s right around there and doing something -- either getting on base or slugging.”

Schwarber’s 17 homers in the leadoff spot are the most in franchise history through the team’s first 81 games. Jimmy Rollins held the previous mark with 13 in 2007, when he won the NL MVP.

"[Schwarber’s] strength is he has really good bat speed,” Nationals right-hander Paolo Espino said. “He was able to get to those pitches. I don't think they were bad pitches. The first one I think was a really great pitch, down and away, and he was still able to get down there and hit it out. That's his strength, he has a really good, quick bat."

Schwarber is batting .219 with 25 homers, 53 RBIs and an .853 OPS. He started slowly, but from May 30 through Tuesday, he is batting .270 with 15 homers, 31 RBIs and a 1.058 OPS.

It is no wonder the Nationals intentionally walked Schwarber to load the bases in the sixth.

“As we've seen before, when he's hot like that, the home runs come in bunches for him,” Nationals manager Dave Martinez said.

Schwarber entered Tuesday tied with San Diego’s Jurickson Profar and Arizona’s Daulton Varsho for sixth among NL outfielders with 1.7 WAR, according to FanGraphs. Mookie Betts (3.4), Jeff McNeil (2.4), Brandon Nimmo (2.4), Ian Happ (2.2) and Juan Soto (1.8) ranked ahead of them.

Schwarber should receive serious NL All-Star consideration, but that is not his end game.

“I always try to be an even-keeled dude,” he said. “I’m not going to ride the wave. I’ve been there before, done that. I know the game can throw a lot of different things at you. You just have to stick to consistency. You look at the best players in the game. You look at Harp [Bryce Harper]. Harp’s consistent. That’s the name of this game. … Yeah, [25] is a cool number, right? But we’ve got to see where we’re at, at the end of the year and try to get to the postseason.”