August 28, 2025: Kyle Schwarber’s four-homer game paces Phillies’ rout of Braves

The Philadelphia Phillies arrived home for a four-game Labor Day weekend series with the Atlanta Braves after getting swept by another National League East Division rival, the New York Mets, in late August 2025. The Mets had outscored the Phillies 25-8 in the three-game series, leaving Philadelphia with only a four-game lead over New York in the NL East heading into the final month of the season.

The Braves were continuing a 10-game road trip after winning a series against the Miami Marlins. Atlanta was in fourth place in the NL East, 15 games behind the Phillies. With a 61-72 record, the Braves were facing the possibility of their first losing record since 2017.

Thirty-two-year-old right-hander Aaron Nola started for Philadelphia. He was in his 11th season in the Phillies rotation, having signed a seven-year, $170-million free-agent contract with the team after the 2023 season.1 Nola entered the game at 2-7 with a 6.52 ERA and was facing his third losing record since becoming a Phillies starter in 2015.2

Batting second in Philadelphia’s lineup was designated hitter Kyle Schwarber, also 32, whose 45 home runs were tied with Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers for the NL lead. Schwarber, the NL home-run king in 2022 with 46 homers, entered the game in a 0-for-20 slump after going hitless in the Mets series.

Atlanta scored against Nola in the top of the first. Jurickson Profar singled. Matt Olson walked. After Ronald Acuña Jr. popped out, rookie catcher Drake Baldwin3 singled to load the bases. Nola walked Ozzie Albies to bring home the first Atlanta run.

Three pitches later, Michael Harris II singled home Olson and Baldwin. Nola struck out Marcell Ozuna for the second out. The inning ended when Albies was caught trying to steal home on an attempted double steal, but Atlanta had grabbed a three-run lead.

Cal Quantrill took the mound for the Braves.4 The 30-year-old right-hander had joined Atlanta’s rotation after he was picked up off waivers from Miami one week earlier.5 Quantrill lost his first start with the Braves on August 23, giving up three runs over 4⅔ innings in their 9-2 loss to the Mets.

Quantrill got leadoff batter Trea Turner to fly out to right field, but the lefty-swinging Schwarber pulled Quantrill’s 2-and-1 pitch over the right-field fence for his 46th home run of the season.

Bryce Harper followed with a single. Then cleanup batter J.T. Realmuto hit Quantrill’s first pitch over the left-field wall. Realmuto’s 11th homer of the season tied the score, 3-3.

Brandon Marsh continued the Phillies’ inning with a single. After Alec Bohm grounded into a force out at second, Max Kepler hit Philadelphia’s third homer of the inning to make the score 5-3. Harrison Bader finally ended the inning by popping out to Baldwin.

Neither team scored in the second with Schwarber flying out to center to end the Phillies’ half. But Philadelphia broke the game open in the next three innings. Harper’s third-inning homer, his 22nd of the season, pushed the lead to 6-3.

The Phillies went back on the attack in the fourth. A triple by Bader, a single by Bryson Stott and a double by Turner added two more runs to their lead.

Braves manager Brian Snitker pulled Quantrill for Austin Cox. The 28-year-old left-hander had signed with Atlanta after being released by the Kansas City Royals back in May.

Schwarber hit a full-count curveball over the right-field wall for his 47th home run and second of the game. A pair of walks and a double made it 12-3 before Kepler grounded to second for the third out.

The Phillies added three more runs in the fifth. Bader and Turner singled. Schwarber hit his third home run of the game, an opposite-field shot, and his 48th of the season to make the score 15-3. It was the fourth three-homer game of his 11-season career.6

As Schwarber rounded the bases, the crowd at Citizens Bank Park chanted “MVP, MVP.”7

Nola settled down after the Braves’ first-inning salvo, facing the minimum of 12 batters from the second through fifth innings. Olson led off the sixth with a home run for Atlanta’s fourth run.

With Nola at 95 pitches, right-hander Daniel Robert replaced him in the seventh. The 30-year-old Robert had joined the Phillies in a trade with the Texas Rangers on April 30.8 He gave up two singles in the seventh but kept the Braves from scoring.

With one out and a runner on second in the seventh, Snitker brought in Wander Suero. The 33-year-old right-hander had signed as free agent prior to the season and spent the first part of the season in the minors until he was called up in mid-July.9 

After Suero walked Edmundo Sosa on 10 pitches, Schwarber hit his fourth home run of the game, a three-run blast, and his 49th of the season and 333rd of his career, to put the Phillies in front 18-4. The three RBIs brought his total for the game to nine, setting a Phillies record.10

Schwarber was the third player to hit four home runs in a game in 202511 and 21st National or American Leaguer to achieve that feat.12 Schwarber was also the fourth Phillies player to hit four home runs, the most of any other franchise. He followed Ed Delahanty on July 13, 1896, Chuck Klein on July 10, 1936, and Mike Schmidt on April 17, 1976.

“It’s one of those things. He’s in a groove right now – tonight anyway,” said Phillies manager Rob Thomson. “It was good to see, because we needed it. He’s been hitting some balls hard, right at people. They’ve been pitching him tough. So it was good to see.”13

Suero struck out Weston Wilson, who had replaced Harper in the sixth. But after back-to-back singles, Snitker replaced Suero with shortstop Vidal Brujan to prevent the Braves from using any more relievers. It was the third time Brujan had been used as a relief pitcher. Miami had called on him twice in 2024 in two blowout losses.14 Brujan got Bohm to fly out to center on his first pitch to end the inning.

After Robert pitched a 1-2-3 eighth, Schwarber, who was set to come up fifth in the frame, needed some help from his teammates to have a chance for a fifth home run.

Brujan walked Kepler. Bader singled. Brujan got Stott to line out to center for the first out. Sosa singled, scoring Kepler to make it 19-4.

This brought up Schwarber. He was only the third player to have an opportunity to hit five homers in a single game. Lou Gehrig had the chance in June 3, 1932. Mike Cameron also had a chance on May 2, 2002.15

Brujan’s first pitch was a ball. His second pitch was a 57-mph slider. Schwarber popped it up to short left field where Eli White, who had replaced Profar, made the easy catch.

Schwarber, when asked about that last at-bat, said: “I got a mental block somewhere in my head that I’m not very good against a position player, but it’s just, go up there and all you’re trying to do is get a good pitch … I got the pitch down the middle and just popped it up.”16

Schwarber tipped his cap to the crowd as he returned to the dugout.

After Brujan got Wilson to fly out to end the eighth, Thomson brought in Lou Trivino to pitch the ninth. Trivino retired the Braves on 11 pitches to give the Phillies their 77th win. It tied them with the Dodgers for the second-best record in the National League.

Schwarber’s teammates saluted him in the clubhouse. “I’ve never seen a four-homer game in person, so that was amazing,” said Nola. “The guy’s awesome. I don’t know what else to say. I mean, the guy’s having a year for the ages. It’s awesome to watch.”17

“It’s a rarity in baseball. You hope to see it, so you’re obviously aware,” said Phillies reliever Matt Strahm. “And again, it’s history, the 21st time in baseball. It’s just something you hope to see, and we were fortunate to see it tonight.”18

Schwarber finished the season with 56 home runs, giving him his second career home-run crown. He became the second Phillie to hit 50 or more in one season; Ryan Howard set the franchise record with 58 homers in 2006. Schwarber finished the season with 132 RBIs, the most in the National League.19 He was second behind Ohtani for the NL Most Valuable Player Award.20

• Read more: Click here to find SABR’s comprehensive list of all 4-HR games in professional baseball history

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Bruce Slutsky and copy-edited by Keith Thursby. 

Photo credit: Kyle Schwarber, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author used Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for the box score and other material.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PHI/PHI202508280.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2025/B08280PHI2025.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_w5KEUEpBM

Notes

1 Nola had sought a contract worth more than $200 million dollars during spring training in 2023. When the Phillies balked, talks stopped when the season started. The Phillies continued to say that they wanted Nola to win to win a championship. When the 2023 season ended, Nola filed for free agency, but both sides came to an agreement on a seven-year, $172 million contract on November 19. As of 2026, it was the longest contract for a pitcher in Philadelphia history. Todd Zolecki, “Nola, Phillies commit for long haul with 7-year deal,” MLB.com, November 19, 2023, https://www.mlb.com/news/aaron-nola-phillies-free-agent-deal?partnerID=mlbapp-iOS_article-share.

2 Nola struggled with injuries in 2025. He first had an ankle sprain and then a stress fracture in one of his right ribs. The injuries forced him to miss three months of the season. He also struggled with his four-seam fastball, his second most important pitch. Theo DeRosa, “The Phillies need Nola in 2026. Here’s how he can ring the bell,” MLB.com, January 24, 2026, https://www.mlb.com/news/how-aaron-nola-could-bounce-back-for-phillies-in-2026.

3 Baldwin started the season as the Braves’ catcher after Sean Murphy was hit by a pitch that broke a rib in spring training.

4 Cal Quantrill’s father, Paul Quantrill, pitched for seven teams during his 14-year career, including the Phillies in 1994 and 1995.

5 Quantrill was released by the Braves on September 4, 2025. He finished the season with the Texas Rangers, who signed him on September 7, 2025.

6 As a member of the Washington Nationals, Schwarber hit three home runs against the New York Mets in 2021. He had three-homer games for Philadelphia against the Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays in 2024. Subsequent to this game, he hit three home runs for the Phillies against the Mets on June 20, 2026—the fifth anniversary of his previous three-homer game against the Mets.

7 Ty Daubert, “Kyle Schwarber Blasts 4 Home Runs, Tying MLB Record on Monster Night,” PhilliesNation.com, August 28, 2025, https://philliesnation.com/2025/08/philadelphia-phillies-kyle-schwarber-blasts-4-home-runs-ties-mlb-record-on-monster-night/.

8 The Texas Rangers traded Robert to the Phillies for minor-leaguer Enrique Segura.

9 Suero had five relief appearances after joining the Braves. He was released on September 4. At the time, he had pitched 6⅓ innings and had an 11.37 ERA.

10 The previous record was eight RBIs held three Phillies players. Jayson Werth hit eight in the Phillies 10-3 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on May 16, 2008. Mike Schmidt had eight in Philadelphia’s 18-16 win over the Chicago Cubs on April 17, 1976, the same game where he hit four home runs. Willie Jones hit eight in the 12-2 Phillies win over the St. Louis Cardinals on August 20, 1958.

11 Arizona Diamondback Eugenio Suarez hit four homers on April 26, 2025, when Atlanta beat Arizona, 8-7. Nick Kurtz of the Oakland A’s hit four home runs on July 25, 2025, when Oakland beat the Houston Astros, 15-3.

12 “Four Home Runs in One Game,” Baseball-Almanac, accessed August 3, 2026, https://www.baseball-almanac.com/feats/feats4.shtml.

13 Daubert, “Kyle Schwarber Blasts 4 Home Runs, Tying MLB Record on Monster Night.”

14 Brujan was used as a pitcher one more time in 2025 when he pitched two-thirds of an inning in a 20-4 loss to Miami on September 19.

15 Gehrig hit a 460-foot fly ball in the ninth that was caught just shy of the center-field fence. Cameron had two more opportunities to hit his fifth. When he came to bat in the seventh, he was hit by a pitch and when he came to bat in the ninth, he lined out to deep right field.

16 Anthony SanFilippo, “Kyle Schwarber’s Four-Homer Night at Citizens Bank Park Was Almost Even More Historic,” OnPattison.com, August 28, 2025, https://onpattison.com/news/2025/aug/28/kyle-schwarbers-four-homer-night-at-citizens-bank-park-was-almost-even-more-historic/.

17 SanFilippo.

18 Daubert, “Kyle Schwarber Blasts 4 Home Runs, Tying MLB Record on Monster Night.”

19 Schwarber’s 132 RBIs placed him 14th on the Phillies all-time RBI season total. Chuck Klein hold the record with 170 RBIs in 1930.

20 Ohtani received 420 votes, including all 30 first-place votes. Schwarber finished second with 260 votes.