Barry Bonds isn’t dead, so he can’t be resurrected as Kyle Schwarber. But maybe peak Bonds was able to slip the bonds of space and time and warg into Schwarber’s body, as the Nationals’ leadoff hitter is on the best power run baseball has seen since Bonds ruled the game.
With two dingers Monday, Schwarber now has 15 in his last 17 games. Incredibly, seven of them have come against the Mets, in just three games and 11 at-bats.
Behind Schwarber’s swats and five homers total, the Nationals beat the Mets 8-4 and got back to .500. At 38-38, the Nationals now only trail the Mets (40-34) by three games in the NL East.
Pitching to Schwarber to start the game was forgivable. On Jerad Eickhoff’s second pitch, he hit a high and inside fastball over the right field foul pole, the type of bomb that only someone on an otherworldly hot streak could stroke. And anyway, putting Schwarber on first would have produced the same result as the next batter, Trea Turner, homered.
His second one, though, was the product of a pair of curious decisions by Mets manager Luis Rojas. First, despite Eickhoff getting hit hard all night, he batted for himself in the top of the fifth inning with a runner on first in a 3-0 game. Then, in the bottom of the inning and Schwarber’s hot streak already confirmed, Rojas let Eickhoff pitch to Schwarber.
Eickhoff hung an 81-mph slider, gifting Schwarber his second solo shot of the night.
