Kyle Schwarber Makes MLB History With 13th Leadoff Home Run of Season

Kyle Schwarber #12 of the Philadelphia Phillies celebrates his third home run of the game in the ninth inning against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on Sept. 3, 2024. Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images

The major leagues have been around for 154 years, and for roughly 140 of those years, the leadoff hitter was defined as someone with great contact ability to get on base and with the speed to steal bases then. However, in recent years, a new type of leadoff hitter has developed. Having good on-base skills is still paramount to the new-age leadoff men, but the power element has been something new added to the position, and Kyle Schwarber is a perfect example of the modern leadoff batter.

The slugger has just 27 stolen bases across his decade in the Big Leagues, but he also has both the patience to draw walks and get on base, as well as the home run ability to knock himself in. He did just that in the Philadelphia Phillies’ 4-2 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday as Schwarber led off the game with a 416-foot home run. It was his team-leading 32^nd long ball of the year, but more notably, it was his 13^th leadoff homer of the season. That made history as it ties Alfonso Soriano’s (2003) all-time mark for the most leadoff home runs in a single season.

It was also Schwarber’s 44^th career leadoff home run, which ties him for the ninth-most in MLB history. He needs three more to surpass former Phillies great Jimmy Rollins for eighth place, as the 2007 NL MVP hit 46 homers from the leadoff position, with all of them coming during his 15 years in Philadelphia. The MLB record for career leadoff home runs is 81 by Rickey Henderson, who was the prototypical leadoff man for most of MLB history. George Springer (60) has the most amongst active players and ranks second all-time to Henderson.

Schwarber’s rise up the leadoff homer rankings is amazing considering that he wasn’t a full-time leadoff hitter until recently. He dabbled in the No. 1 hole for parts of seasons for most of his career but was primarily a middle-of-the-order batter. It wasn’t until he joined the Phillies as a free agent in 2022 that he became a full-time leadoff hitter and hasn’t looked back. His two biggest home run seasons have come in the last two years as he hit 46 in 2022 and then 47 in 2023.

His numbers this season also indicate that he thrives in this role of being the first Phillies player to enter the batter’s box every game. He has a slash line of .287/.394/.657, with a 1.051 OPS when leading off a game, compared to a slash line of .237/.365/.433 with an OPS of .798 when at the plate in all other situations. For reference, an OPS of 1.051 on the season would rank second in all of baseball, trailing only Aaron Judge (1.163). Meanwhile, a full-season OPS of .798 would rank 37^th in MLB.

The Wednesday homer was one of three times that Schwarber reached base on the day, as he also hit an infield single and drew a walk.

The hot bat was a continuation from Tuesday when the slugger hit three home runs as part of a five-hit game. The first of those three homers was another leadoff bomb, which was his 12^th of the season, and this recent hot stretch now has him third in the National League in home runs this season after finishing second in 2023 and leading the Senior Circuit in dingers the prior year.

Now, with leadoff home runs in back-to-back games, another record is in sight for Schwarber, but he’s only halfway to matching it. The MLB record for most consecutive games with a leadoff homer is four, set by Brady Anderson of the Baltimore Orioles in 1996. Coincidentally, it is Anderson that Schwarber tied with his 44th career leadoff homer, as the two share the mark for ninth-most all-time.

Kyle Schwarber #12 of the Philadelphia Phillies bats in the seventh inning during a game against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on Sept. 4, 2024. Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images

With the victory, Philadelphia has now won four in a row and eight of its last 10 contests. That’s created a 7.5-game cushion between it and the Atlanta Braves in the NL East, and the Phillies’ 83 wins on the season are the second-most in all of baseball to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 84.

However, it wasn’t all good news for Philadelphia, despite Wednesday’s win, as star Bryce Harper exited the game after being hit by a 92 m.p.h. fastball in the first inning. Harper managed to stay in the game for a couple of innings after getting beaned on the left elbow but was then replaced in the third frame by Edmundo Sosa.

It was right elbow surgery after the 2022 season that led to Harper manning the designated hitter position that Schwarber currently occupies. Once he got healthier, Harper then gave up his outfield glove for a first baseman’s mitt and hasn’t looked back. That also opened up the DH position for Schwarber, who is manning the position full-time this year for the first season of his career, and it’s led to one of his finest seasons. Thus, if Harper has to go back to DH for a while, it could create a ripple effect with Schwarber as well, possibly forcing him to the outfield, but unlikely moving him from the leadoff spot.