The Philadelphia Phillies’ bats have been scuffling in recent days, but Kyle Schwarber knows that a relaxed, focused approach is still the way to go.
Schwarber and the Phillies hope to escape with a series victory Sunday afternoon when they conclude their weekend set with the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks.
Philadelphia has scored in only two of its last 37 innings. The team came into this series with a 20-inning scoreless drought and has put up a zero in 15 of its 17 frames against Arizona.
In Friday’s series opener, the Phillies scored four first-inning runs and then got blanked the rest of the way en route to a 5-4 defeat. On Saturday, a four-run third proved to be enough in a 4-3 triumph.
“Everyone wants to get a hit, everyone wants to make the sick play, everyone wants to do something,” Schwarber said. “But that moment you start trying to go out and you start reaching for it might just create something that shouldn’t be there.”
Schwarber’s three-run homer highlighted the Phillies’ only offensive surge on Saturday night. Bryce Harper followed with a blast of his own, giving Philadelphia starter Taijuan Walker enough of a cushion to earn his first victory of 2026.
For Schwarber, the home run was his fourth of the season and snapped a six-game homer drought. Harper’s blast — his third of the campaign — also snapped a six-game stretch without going deep.
“He’s doing what he does really well,” Schwarber said of his fellow slugger. “He’s staying within himself. He’s controlling the zone, obviously. He’s getting a lot of really good contact and … that’s what he does.”
The Diamondbacks lost despite a leadoff homer from Ketel Marte and three hits from Adrian Del Castillo. The visitors scored two early runs against Walker but didn’t muster much offense thereafter.
“Two runs in this ballpark against this team doesn’t mean much,” Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said, “because they can turn things around in a hurry.”
Lovullo hopes his team can rebound behind Zac Gallen (1-1, 3.00 ERA), who has allowed just one earned run in 11 innings over his last two starts. The right-hander worked around five hits and four walks against the New York Mets in his last outing, yielding a respectable two runs (one earned) in five innings of the team’s 4-3 loss in 10 innings last Tuesday.
“I know Zac got a little nicked up early but then got super stubborn and started to pound the zone,” said Lovullo.
Gallen is 4-1 with a 2.52 ERA in seven career starts against Philadelphia.
The Phillies will counter with rookie Andrew Painter (1-0, 4.82), who has been uneven in his first two career starts.
The right-hander, who turned 23 on Friday, gave up one run in 5 1/3 innings against the Washington Nationals in his MLB debut on March 31. However, the San Francisco Giants reached him for four runs on nine hits in four innings on Monday.
Painter struck out just one against San Francisco after recording eight punchouts against Washington.
“The difference between this game and the last game is that once he got behind in the count, it didn’t seem like he was landing his secondary pitches as well,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said after Painter’s stint against the Giants. “But he battled.”
–Field Level Media
