Kyle Schwarber did not just beat up the Mets on Saturday night. He turned Citizens Bank Park into his own batting cage and dragged the Phillies into another piece of baseball history. In a 15-3 win over New York, Schwarber hit three home runs, including two in the same inning, as Philadelphia stacked one loud swing on top of another.
That would have been enough for most weeks. It was not enough for this one. Jac Caglianone returned to Tropicana Field and punished the Rays in front of family and old memories. Dansby Swanson drove in runs at a pace the Cubs had never seen in a doubleheader. Jake McCarthy delivered a walk-off triple in Denver that had not been matched in 20 years.
By the time the week ended, MLB had produced a full menu of strange history. Some of it came from stars. Some came from players still carving out their place. All of it made the box scores feel unusually alive.
The Sluggers Set The Week On Fire
Schwarber’s night started with brute force. He opened the third inning with a 456-foot shot off Mets starter Freddy Peralta. Later in the same inning, he greeted left-hander Cionel Pérez with a 457-foot blast. That one came with two runners on base. In less than one inning, Schwarber had sent 913 feet worth of baseball into the Philadelphia night.
He added a third homer later for the fifth three-homer game of his career. Only Mookie Betts, Johnny Mize, and Sammy Sosa have more. Schwarber also became the only player since Statcast tracking began in 2015 to hit multiple 450-foot homers in the same inning.
“Yeah, that was cool. First time I’ve done that in my career,” Schwarber said.
The bigger number came one day later. Schwarber hit his MLB-leading 29th homer of the season, giving him 216 since signing with Philadelphia before the 2022 season. That puts him third all-time for home runs in a player’s first five seasons with a team. Only Babe Ruth with the Yankees and Mark McGwire with the Cardinals hit more.
Caglianone gave the week its best young power story. The Tampa native returned to Tropicana Field as a Royal and homered twice in Kansas City’s 12-5 win over the Rays. His first shot traveled 443 feet to the right. His second went 416 feet to left-center.
Crucially, it was his third multi-homer game this June. MLB’s historical tracking placed him alongside Salvador Perez, Hunter Dozier, and Ed Kirkpatrick for the most multi-homer games in a calendar month in Royals history. He also tied the franchise mark for most home runs in a five-game span with six.
Goldschmidt added a veteran twist. After returning to the Yankees on a one-year deal for 2026, he hit his fourth leadoff homer of the season. Those four blasts now stand as the four oldest leadoff homers in Yankees history. Per Elias Sports Bureau, his four leadoff homers are also the fourth most in a season by a player aged 38 or older.
Swanson Turned A Series Into An RBI Audit
Schwarber and Caglianone owned the power conversation, but Swanson owned the run-production column.
The Cubs shortstop drove in 15 runs across the first three games of a four-game series against the Mets. That made him the 18th recorded player with at least 15 RBIs in a series since RBI became official in 1920. It was also the 12th such instance in a series of four games or fewer.
Wednesday’s doubleheader at Citi Field pushed the performance into franchise history. Swanson drove in seven runs in Chicago’s 10-6 win in Game 1, then added four more in a 10-5 win in Game 2. His 11 RBIs set a Cubs doubleheader record, passing Ron Santo’s mark of 10 from 1970.
The details mattered. In Game 2, with the score tied at 4 in the sixth inning, Swanson tripled over the head of right fielder Brett Baty to bring home Pedro Ramírez. He later added a two-run single in the ninth to kill the Mets’ last chance at a comeback.
Fans and analysts usually praise Swanson for his glove and middle-infield steadiness. That series showed a different version. He did not just contribute. He controlled games from the bottom half of the order and forced New York to pay for every mistake.
Walk-Off Chaos Kept Rewriting The Ninth
The week’s late-game drama started in Colorado, where McCarthy came to the plate with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth against Aroldis Chapman. The Rockies trailed Boston by 2. McCarthy turned a 99.6 mph sinker into a bases-clearing triple past third base, giving Colorado a 3-2 win.
Trailing by two runs made the feat historic. McCarthy became only the sixth player in the divisional era to hit a walk-off triple in that situation. He was the first since Grady Sizemore in 2006.
The Rockies made it even stranger. They ended the game with eight straight hits, a feat Elias Sports Bureau had not seen from any team since at least the start of the expansion era in 1961.
San Francisco added its own ninth-inning shock. The Giants entered the bottom of the ninth against the Athletics trailing 1-0. Rafael Devers tied it with a leadoff homer. Two outs later, Victor Bericoto drove an Elvis Alvarado slider 445 feet to left-center for a 2-1 win.
Bericoto had already made a crucial defensive play earlier, throwing out Jacob Wilson at the plate with a 93 mph throw from left field. He became the first player since Brent Rooker in 2023 to record a walk-off homer and an outfield assist in the same game. He is also only the third Giant to do it in the last 50 years.
Philadelphia carried the late-inning theme further. The Phillies won on consecutive days after being down to their final strike. Then Bryce Harper hit a go-ahead homer in the ninth the next day. Per Elias, Philadelphia became the first team in MLB history to hit a go-ahead home run in the ninth inning in three straight games.
Ashcraft And Caminero Added The Weird History
Braxton Ashcraft provided the cleanest pitching line of the week. After allowing three singles to open Wednesday’s game against Seattle, the Pirates right-hander settled down and drove Pittsburgh toward an 11-1 win.
Ashcraft struck out 10 and did not walk a batter. It was his second start this season with at least 10 strikeouts and 0 walks. That made him the first Pirates pitcher since at least 1900 with two such games in one season.
The dominance was not just in the strikeout total. He generated 15 whiffs, threw first-pitch strikes to 18 of 23 hitters, and finished with 68 strikes on 86 pitches through six innings. For a young pitcher in his first full big-league season, that is command under pressure after a shaky start.
Caminero closed the week with the strangest near miss. The Rays’ third baseman hit three home runs in Tampa Bay’s 13-2 win over Kansas City. He finished 3 for 5 with six RBIs and 1,152 feet of total home run distance.
At the same time, the Rays took a combined no-hit bid into the ninth inning before Carter Jensen broke it up with a two-run homer. Per Elias, MLB has never had a game with both a no-hitter and an individual three-homer performance.
That summed up the week better than any neat summary could. Schwarber’s moonshots grabbed the front page. Behind him, the league kept producing records that looked less like trivia and more like proof of how strange a 162-game season can become.
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FAQs
Q: How many home runs did Kyle Schwarber hit against the Mets?
A: Kyle Schwarber hit three home runs in Philadelphia’s 15-3 win over the Mets.
Q: Why was Jake McCarthy’s walk-off triple so rare?
A: McCarthy hit it with Colorado trailing by two runs. Only six players have done that in the divisional era.
Q: What made Jac Caglianone’s week special?
A: Caglianone returned to Tropicana Field and hit two homers. He also tied Royals power marks during his June surge.
Q: What record did Dansby Swanson set for the Cubs?
A: Swanson drove in 11 runs in a doubleheader. That set a Cubs franchise record.
Q: What was unusual about Junior Caminero’s three-homer game?
A: Caminero hit three homers while the Rays carried a no-hit bid into the ninth inning. MLB has never seen both in one game.
