PHILADELPHIA - The question caused Kyle Schwarber to pause and ponder the history for a moment. Did Schwarber ever see himself, in his wildest baseball dreams, getting to 50 home runs in a Major League Baseball season?
Did he hope for it as a prodigious hitting prospect and No. 4 overall pick out of Indiana? As a player whose every rehab move was tracked by a Cubs franchise that staked some substantial portion of its drought-busting postseason hopes on his healing knee and legendary bat? As a guy who hit 46 dingers in a season before his 30th birthday?
"I don't think so," is what Schwarber came up with Tuesday night, after his 50th home run rocketed out of Citizens Bank Park. "Every single year, you try to find a way to keep getting better and to find a way to be productive for your team. And I don't know what to say about, why have you hit so many homers, whatever it is? It's just the way it happens. Like I've always said, it's not like I'm going up there trying to do that.
"It just finds its way. And it's a cool thing."
It's also an immortal thing now. Schwarber's demolition of a 3-1 cutter from Justin Hagenman in the seventh inning traveled 437 feet to left center, clearing the 409 sign and Monty's Angle to hit just below the pitch clock. The three-run shot powered a 9-3 win that extends the Phillies' lead to nine games over the Mets in the National League East and takes Schwarber's MLB-leading RBI total to 123.
With it, he became the 34th player to collect the 52nd instance of 50 home runs in a season, the first in the National League this season to join the Mariners' Cal Raleigh. He's only the second Phillie on that list - joining Ryan Howard's franchise-record 58 in 2006.
"To join him, it's an honor. It's a privilege," Schwarber said of his fellow lefty masher. "That guy's done so much great, great things for Philadelphia, and you can only hope to follow the way that he went about his business and the way that he played the game."
Schwarber is the first to collect 50 in a season that featured a four-homer game, which accounted for Nos. 46 through 49 on Aug. 28 against Atlanta.
That was 49 plate appearances ago by Tuesday, a span of time that didn't exactly weigh on Schwarber but that he nonetheless clocked. The relief came out in a moment shared with third-base coach Dusty Wathan while turning for home.
"I was just laughing at him," Schwarber said. "I go, finally. I felt like over the last five days, I was hitting the ball pretty good and having good at-bats, and just didn't cooperate. And then it finally sneaks out."
So much about the 50th epitomized Schwarber. For starters, it didn't "sneak out": The blast was a homer in all 30 parks and most of the fields constructed in the Western hemisphere. Schwarber hit his 45th on Aug. 20 against Seattle, then went 0-for-20 before the four-homer game. He was 5-for-49 since, starting with the lament of missing a fifth dinger against Braves infielder Vidal Brujan.
Schwarber's journey to his 334th career homer has had potholes. After 16 homers in 69 games as a rookie, he lost the 2016 regular season to an April ACL tear but returned to help the Cubs win the World Series. He hit 94 homers over the next three seasons, batting .250 with 38 bombs in 2019.
But a struggle of a COVID-shortened 2020 led the Cubs to non-tender him. Thirty-two homers in 2021 split between the Nationals and Red Sox resuscitated his career, landing a four-year deal in Philadelphia.
He's rewarded the Phillies with 46, 47, 38 and 50 homers and counting; three playoff appearances and another whose magic number sits at seven; a pennant in 2022; plus the promise of most fans to revolt unless they sign him to a new deal this winter.
Schwarber's emphasis is less on milestones than on continued improvement. He batted .197 in 2023 despite the 47 homers, then upped the average to .248 last year. He set career-bests of 104 RBIs in 2023 and 2024, then has shattered that last season. His OPS of .925 is his best save for a .928 in 2021 and more than 100 points higher than 2023.
Along the way, he's striking out less, walking more and is battering lefties at a historic clip. He has 27 home runs against relievers, tying the Statcast era record (since 2015, set by Aaron Judge in 2022). He already owns the MLB record for most homers off left-handed relievers, taken from Barry Bonds.
Those are the tangible steps that Schwarber prioritizes. The history they bring is lovely, something he'll one day rejoice in. But not yet.
"It's cool, the stat of how many people have done it before in the game," he said. "So it's something that you don't take lightly. I've always said all the personal accolades and everything like that will probably mean more whenever it's all said and done. I feel like we've got so much more baseball here and we've got a group of guys that we feel like we can make a deep run, and that's what we want to do."