Philadelphia Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber established a new Major League Baseball single-season record on Tuesday night against the Tampa Bay Rays (GameTracker), launching his 14th leadoff home run of the year. The blast was also his 35th overall.
Observe Schwarber's damage to a misplaced 1-0 heater from Rays right-hander Taj Bradley:
Statcast reported that Schwarber's home run left the bat with a 113.9 mph exit velocity and carried 437 feet. It would've been a home run in all 30 MLB ballparks, again per Statcast's estimates.
Schwarber, 31, entered Tuesday batting .250/.370/.489 (140 OPS+) on the season with 34 home runs, 94 runs batted in, and an estimated 3.4 Wins Above Replacement, according to the calculations housed at Baseball Reference.
Schwarber, in addition to setting the single-season record, is only the second player in league history with multiple 10-plus home-run seasons from the leadoff spot. The other player to accomplish that feat? Former second baseman/outfielder Alfonso Soriano. (It stands to reason that teams generally move their most effective sluggers down in the batting order to maximize their potential for driving in runs with their long balls.)
Soriano held the record for the most leadoff home runs in a single season, delivering 13 for the New York Yankees back in 2003. Per MLB's research, there have now been 12 individual seasons in which a player has homered at least 10 times from the leadoff spot.
The Phillies entered Tuesday with an 86-58 record on the season, giving them a seven-game lead over the New York Mets in the National League East. Nevertheless, Phillies first baseman Bryce Harper expressed his opinion on Monday that the division race "ain't close to being done."