Phillies back-to-back HRs make MLB history last done by Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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The Philadelphia Phillies completed a wild comeback in Game 2 of the NL Wild Card round against the Atlanta Braves thanks to back-to-back home runs from Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper.
Those two homers came off left-handed reliever Dylan Lee and tied the game at 3-3. It went to extra innings, and an Alec Bohm solo homer gave the Phillies the go-ahead and the eventual game-winning run.
So much history was made in this game, but for the Phillies’ superstars in Schwarber and Harper, according to Jayson Stark of The Athletic, they joined Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in MLB history with their back-to-back homers.
Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper made MLB history only done once before by Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig
“How many times in postseason history, would you guess, have any two left-handed hitters hit back-to-back homers off a left-handed pitcher, regardless of score and inning?” Stark writes. “My friends from STATS Perform could find only two times that have ever happened.”
One of those times was Wednesday afternoon, when Harper and Schwarber went deep to right field off Lee to tie the game in the eighth inning of an elimination game.
The other, according to Stark, was “Babe Ruth/Lou Gehrig (Game 4, 1928 World Series, vs. Bill Sherdel.”
Nearly 100 years after Ruth and Gehrig hit their back-to-back home runs off a left-handed pitcher, Schwarber and Harper accomplish the feat to keep their season alive.
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While it didn’t come in the World Series as the two New York Yankees legends’ pair of homers did, their home runs were just what the Phillies needed to stay alive in the postseason.
Harper and Schwarber are the two best power hitters on this Phillies team, and they hit back-to-back in the batting order. But this is the first time they, or any other left-handed hitters since 1928, have gone back-to-back against a left-hander.
While this feat of MLB history is a little bit cherry-picked, this is still quite the accomplishment for Harper and Schwarber, as it hasn’t happened in the nearly 100 years since Ruth and Gehrig did it in 1928.
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