Kyle Schwarber puts exclamation point in Phillies' Game 1 win

play

After Kyle Schwarber hit a 488-foot home run in the first game of the National League Championship Series, it was put to the test to describe an event that lasted less than three seconds.

There was a brief but stunning moment of energy on a night that was defined by a distinct lack of activity after Schwarber's long home run in the sixth.

There were four hits, eight base runners and 20 strikeouts.

ThePhillies won because of two of the hits, one of which was a solo home run, and the other one was a two-run shot by Kyle Schwarber in the seventh.

Wheeler, who has allowed just three earned runs in 19 1/3 postseason appearances this October, came out with a show of dominance in the first, putting together a string of 98 and 99 mph pitches. He could use his breaking pitches to induce soft contact once that was in the minds of the Padres hitters. He allowed just two base runners, a walk to Juan Soto in the first and a single up the middle by Wil Myers in the fifth, and he was removed after throwing 83 pitches.

Two counts constituted a rally for the Padres.

The curveball was the one that made him feel like he was going to win the game. He threw a lot of good breaking balls to their guys, and you could see some awkward swings and weird swings.

Schwarber seemed to capture the imagination in a way that only tape-measure homers can. He sent a Yu Darvish breaking ball into the second deck in right field far above and beyond the playing surface and into a section of the ballpark where nobody could remember being reached. The sound of the ball hitting the bat was like a tree split in two. The air out of a loud crowd was pulled out by the ball. Everyone sawHarper's stunned reaction in the dugout.

In the 2002 World Series, Barry Bonds hit a ball 485 feet off Angels relief pitcher Troy Percival.

It looked like someone was on the range. It was small so quickly. You can just hear it, that's one of the ones that you don't need to look at.

Next time I meet him, I may have to punch him.

The home run gave Philadelphia a boost of confidence and helped erase the home-field advantage the Padres had in the first game of the series. The extra run felt like a lot more than one run.

Schwarber, who had two of the Philadelphia's three hits, had a.130 average in the playoffs. He stressed that he would have accepted the home run if it had barely cleared the wall.

He was asked to recount his teammates' reactions when he came back to the bench.

He refused to give the people what they wanted.

After the expressions of shock were relayed, there was nothing left to say. At this point, the moment was more real than anecdotal. When it happened, I kept thinking about what I would say. I have never seen that before. It's hard because you don't have much time to think about it.

When asked to describe Schwarber's home run in a number of different ways, he finally said, "It was just really far." That's all you need to know. It was a long way away.