The Philadelphia Phillies are the National League East Champions and have also clinched a first-round bye in the 2025 postseason. With their number two seed all but locked up, there normally wouldn’t be much to play for in the final four games of the year.
However, with Kyle Schwarber hitting three home runs in the first two games of the Miami Marlins series, the Phillies’ DH is only two away from tying Ryan Howard atop the single-season Phillies home run leaderboard with 58.
After Schwarber’s two-home run night, Ty Daubert of Phillies Nation shared that Howard is rooting for Schwarber to break his record and set a new benchmark for most home runs in a season by a Phillies hitter.
Kyle Schwarber is two home runs away from tying Ryan Howard’s Phillies home run record
“I’m rooting for him, man,” Howard said. “I know how tough it is to be able to go out there and put a season like this together, and you just got to run with it as much as you can.”
Ryan Howard was here as Kyle Schwarber reached 56 HR, and he’s hoping Schwarber catches his 58.
“I’m rooting for him, man,” Howard said. “I know how tough it is to be able to go out there and put a season like this together, and you just got to run with it as much as you can.”
— Ty Daubert (@TyDaubert) September 25, 2025
Howard hit 58 home runs in 2006 for the Phillies, winning the NL MVP in the process for one of the best single-seasons in Phillies history. Schwarber, while unlikely to win the NL MVP, is having an incredible season of his own.
He sits at 56 home runs and 132 RBIs with four games to go, both numbers that lead the NL, while his RBI total leads all of baseball this season. The Phillies’ DH also has career highs in OPS (.946) and slugging percentage (.576).
Schwarber can be one of the hottest hitters in baseball, and with Rob Thomson indicating he wants Schwarber to set the record if he can, there’s a realistic chance that he can finish out the year with three home runs in four games.
With the Phillies playing all four games at home, against the Marlins and Minnesota Twins, there’s even more of a chance that Schwarber can reach 58 or 59 home runs this season.
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Of course, reaching 60 home runs would be an even more incredible feat, but he’d need to hit a home run every game to get there. And while he’s been one of the game’s best power-hitters this season, including hitting four home runs in one game, the chances of Schwarber reaching 60 homers aren’t very high.
Now that he’s on the cusp of Phillies and MLB history, it’s hard to ignore the potential history on the horizon every time he steps up to the plate. If nothing else, his effort to set team history should help the Phillies stay hot as they close out the regular season and gear up for a potential World Series run this October.
But, he’s capable of going on a heater and closing out the regular season with a bang. Phillies fans want him to set the record. Thomson is letting him try for it, and Howard hopes his own record is broken by Schwarber.
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