Last night, Kyle Schwarber not only sent one 448 feet to center in his first at bat, he also hammered one the opposite way in his next at – two homers in two pitches, to be precise. Here’s that second homer:
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As you could see, because he’s a hustler (the good kind), Schwarber wasn’t taking anything for granted, and ran hard around first base. Oopsie doodle:
Getting that uniform dirty. pic.twitter.com/EgbCMCVDoe
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) September 12, 2015
As long as he didn’t hurt himself, it’s all good fun.
Which his teammates definitely had:
Rizzo bags himself a Schwarber #Cubs @BleacherNation pic.twitter.com/1wxsqOMS6f
— MBDChicago (@MBDChicago) September 12, 2015
Even the batboy couldn’t help himself:
Even the batboy was chuckling at Schwarber's stumble around first. pic.twitter.com/mkz9ySiL2Q
— Brett Taylor (@BleacherNation) September 12, 2015
And the GIF of Schwarber rounding first was absolutely perfect for this:
Gotta watch out for the track hazards, @kschwarb12. Good thing it wasn't a blue shell. @Cubs pic.twitter.com/VuPVDeapAW
— Randall J. Sanders (@RandallJSanders) September 12, 2015
No one was laughing about the two homers, though. Well, I was kind of laughing about this, but in a very good way:
Kyle Schwarber: first #Cubs player to homer in 1st & 2nd inning since Kris Bryant on July 4th
— Christopher Kamka (@ckamka) September 12, 2015
This was also fun:
@BleacherNation OK. Buster Posey (2)
— Christopher Kamka (@ckamka) September 12, 2015
The game boosted Schwarber’s season line with the Cubs up to .267/.362/.570 (151 wRC+) over 51 games and 199 plate appearances. The guy already has 15 homers, which is absolutely nuts if you extrapolate it over a full season.
Schwarber also sports a bizarre and unique .179/.286/.512 line over his last month or so. He has just 15 hits in that span, but 9 of them are homers. His .143 BABIP in that time isn’t all his fault, though the strikeout rate has been elevated (34.7%). You can’t assume he’ll always homer this much when going through a rough stretch, but, hey, if he generally keeps the power and the patience (13.3% BB rate) during the rough patches, he’s going to be a fantastic big league hitter.