Kyle Schwarber hits four homers in Phillies' thrashing of Atlanta Braves

Philadelphia Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber, an American, became the 21st major leaguer to hit four home runs in a game on Thursday.

In a shattering performance, Schwarber drove in a total of nine runs for the Phillies in a 19-4 thrashing of the Atlanta Braves.

In front of an incredulous crowd at Citizens Bank Park, the American knocked it out of the park in the first, fourth, fifth and seventh innings. The last two were three-run home runs.

All told, Schwarber has 49 homers this year, nipping at the heels of Major League leader Cal Raleigh (Seattle Mariners), who has 50.

This season, the majors had already recorded two other games four-homer games, by Venezuelan Eugenio Suarez for the Arizona Diamondbacks in April and Nick Kurtz for the Athletics in July.

Prior to this season, the Majors had not recorded such a game since 2017.

Within the Phillies franchise, Schwarber is the fourth to accomplish this feat after Mike Schmidt (1976), Chuck Klein (1936) and Ed Delahanty (1896).

In other results, the New York Yankees strung together their fifth straight win by beating the Chicago White Sox 10-4 with homers by Cody Bellinger, Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Trent Grisham.

The neighboring Mets fell in Queens 10-4 to the Miami Marlins. Dominican Juan Soto managed a run and a walk in his four at-bats, while teammate Pete Alonso recorded two hits and drove in two runs.