SAN DIEGO – It sounded like a canon.
It traveled like a meteor.
And it landed where no ball has ever gone before in the history of Petco Park.
The Philadelphia Phillies won Game 1 of the National League Championship Series, 2-0, over the San Diego Padres, but all anyone was talking about was the mammoth home run shot by Kyle Schwarber.
Schwarber, with one magnificent swing, sent Padres starter Yu Darvish’s cutter into oblivion, landing in the right field upper deck, 488 feet away.
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It was the longest ball ever hit in the history of Petco Park.
The ball left Schwarber’s bat at 119.7 mph, the highest velocity off a bat by any player but New York Yankee sluggers Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton since the statistic began being recorded in 2008.
The homer was so breath-taking that the Phillies players raised their hands in the sky, with Bryce Harper’s mouth agape, trying to comprehend what they just witnessed.
The Phillies had plenty of other stars, with Zack Wheeler thoroughly dominating the Padres’ offense, yielding just one hit in seven shutout innings. The Padres’ lone hit was Wil Myers’ single with one out in the fifth inning.
Wheeler cruised from the start, needing 83 pitches through seven innings, before turning the game over to the bullpen.
Harper, who has turned this postseason into his own personal home run derby, once again left another pitcher in his wake, hitting his fourth home run of the postseason in the fourth inning.
It wasn’t nearly as majestic as Schwarber’s homer, traveling 368 feet into the left-field seats, barely beyond the outstretched glove of left fielder Jurickson Profar.
But, hey, it all counted just the same.
The Padres, in the NLCS for the first time in 24 years, wasted a fabulous performance from ace Yu Darvish, who gave up just three hits in seven innings, striking out seven.
Yet, it made no difference, with the Padres looking clueless against Wheeler.
The Padres didn’t even have a runner in scoring position until Alec Bohm’s error in the ninth inning that gave the Padres life. No matter, with runners on first and second, Manny Machado flied out and Josh Bell struck out.
The Padres certainly aren’t taking away anything away from Wheeler, but it’s quite possible they played the game with a Dodgers’ hangover. They spent so much energy, and celebrated so hard after finally being their hated rivals in the Division Series, it almost felt like their World Series.
“I think as a group, we all enjoyed that night,” Machado said. “Obviously beating one of the best teams in baseball, you soak it all in. You enjoy it. Then once Saturday was over, focus was on to the next.
“We’ve got to stay focused on what the real goal is, and it’s to bring a championship to this city. I don’t think any of us are losing that focus.”
Well, if they have, the Phillies certainly delivered a wakeup call, and now have home-field advantage the rest of the seven-game NLCS.
“We’ll see, it’s baseball,” said Harper, who’s hitting .407 this postseason. “Anything can happen in baseball.”
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