Kyle Schwarber helps fuel Phillies' series-opening rout of Blue Jays

Lochlahn March, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Jun 13, 2025

Published in Baseball

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PHILADELPHIA — Kyle Schwarber’s dominance during the month of June throughout his career has been well-documented.

It has spawned jokes, nicknames and speculation that Wawa’s annual Hoagiefest promotion might have something to do with his annual hot streak. The Phillies slugger has a .912 OPS in June for his career.

This June, however, Schwarber started to cool off somewhat. Or perhaps he just needed a few weeks for the June magic to kick into gear. In the third inning on Friday, Schwarber crushed a fastball from the Blue Jays’ Kevin Gausman, sending it 410 feet to straightaway center for a three-run blast.

Schwarber’s homer — in addition to seven shutout innings from Phillies starter Ranger Suárez — helped power the Phillies to an 8-0 series-opening win against Toronto.

Suárez departed the mound to a standing ovation following his longest outing of the season so far. He used an efficient 94 pitches, holding the Blue Jays to just four singles. He did not allow a runner past first base until the seventh inning, when two runners reached on a single and a walk. But Suárez stranded them after Myles Straw lined out to right field.

After a poor first start of the year on May 4 when he was charged with seven runs, the Phillies left-hander has been dominant. In the seven starts since that initial outing, Suárez has an ERA of 1.17.

Joe Ross and Taijuan Walker each tossed a scoreless inning in relief.

A four-run second inning, capped by the Schwarber homer, gave the pitching staff plenty of early run support. J.T. Realmuto started the rally by drawing a walk, before back-to-back doubles from Otto Kemp and Brandon Marsh. While Kemp was thrown out at the plate on Marsh’s hit, Trea Turner then drew a walk to bring Schwarber to the plate.

The Phillies scratched across another run in the sixth inning with three straight singles. In the eighth, they tacked on three more on three hits, a walk and a sacrifice fly. A nifty slide from Bryson Stott helped him avoid the tag at the plate as he scored from second base on a single from Turner.

Every member of the Phillies lineup reached base safely at least once. They also put on a clinic on defense. Kepler diving grab in left field to end the first inning. In the third, Turner made a sliding, backhand grab on the outfield grass and made the throw to first in time to catch the leadoff hitter.