The Main Event
- September 24, 2025 – Phillies set a single-game franchise record with 8 home runs – with Edmundo Sosa becoming the first Phillies shortstop ever to hit three home runs in a game – in an 11-1 rout of the Marlins, clinching a first-round playoff bye.
On September 24, 2025, the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Miami Marlins 11-1 at Citizens Bank Park and, in the process, hit more home runs in a single game than any Phillies team in franchise history. Eight balls left the yard that night, and the star of the show was Edmundo Sosa, a utility infielder who had spent most of his career as a bench piece rather than a headline act.
Sosa’s night for the ages
Sosa hit three home runs and drove in five runs, and he became the first shortstop in Phillies history to hit three homers in one game. He had never done it before at any level. “Never,” Sosa said afterward. “Never had a three-homer game before, not in little league, not in the minors. Some two-home run games. It’s amazing.” He also called it a chance to be part of something bigger than himself, saying it was his turn “to be a part of history, to be a part of this great feat.”
The timing added to the story. Sosa had only recently returned from the injured list after straining his groin on September 16, and he came back just in time to author the best offensive game of his career, and one of the best in Phillies history, with the playoffs one week away.
How the home runs happened
Kyle Schwarber got things started in the third inning with a solo shot to center field, his 55th homer of the season, tying the game at 1-1 after Miami had scored in the top of the second on an RBI single by Eric Wagaman. Sosa answered in the fourth with a solo homer to center off Marlins starter Ryan Weathers, and Bryson Stott followed immediately with a solo shot of his own, also to center, making it 3-1 Phillies.
Sosa broke the game open in the fifth. Facing reliever Lake Bachar, he drove a three-run homer to left field that scored Otto Kemp and Alec Bohm, pushing the Phillies’ lead to 6-1. Philadelphia put the game away for good in the seventh, when four more homers left the yard in a single inning. Schwarber hit his second of the night, a shot to right center. Bohm followed with a solo homer to left center. Kemp added a two-run blast, also to left center, scoring Nick Castellanos. Then Sosa capped his historic night with a third homer, sending one out to left field for his fifth RBI of the game.
Jesus Luzardo made sure none of it was wasted. Facing the team that developed and later traded him, Luzardo threw seven innings, allowed three hits and no earned runs, and struck out ten Marlins, giving him a career high of 216 strikeouts on the season. “I’m truly excited,” Luzardo said afterward, with the postseason on the horizon. “Even in regular season you see home field advantage, but especially postseason.”
The win also had major consequences in the standings. It clinched the Phillies a first round bye and the number two seed in the National League playoffs, with Citizens Bank Park set to host postseason baseball again on October 4.
Chasing history in the same game
Schwarber’s two homers pushed his season total to 56, putting him within two of Ryan Howard‘s Phillies single season record of 58, set in 2006. Schwarber’s home run off a left-handed pitcher earlier in the game also gave him 23 homers against lefties on the season, a major league record. Told afterward how remarkable his own numbers looked, Schwarber shrugged off the individual spotlight in favor of the team’s bigger picture. “You don’t just want to be remembered for regular seasons,” he said. “You want to be remembered for special things down the road.”
Asked which of the eight home runs impressed him most, manager Rob Thomson kept it light. His answer: “Kemp’s.”
The record that fell
Before that night, the Phillies’ single game home run record stood at seven, a mark with a long history of its own. The Phillies first reached seven homers on September 8, 1998, in a 16-4 win over the Mets at Veterans Stadium. Rico Brogna, Kevin Sefcik, and Bobby Estalella each hit two home runs that day, and rookie Marlon Anderson added a seventh, a pinch hit homer in his very first major league at bat.
That mark stood for two decades until July 26, 2018, when the Phillies matched it in a 9-4 win over the Cincinnati Reds. Rhys Hoskins, Maikel Franco, and Nick Williams each homered twice, and Carlos Santana added one more to tie the total at seven.
The Phillies tied their own record again less than a month before Sosa’s big night, on August 28, 2025, in a 19-4 rout of the Atlanta Braves. That game belonged to Schwarber, who hit four home runs and drove in nine runs, becoming just the fourth player in Phillies history to hit four homers in a single game, joining Mike Schmidt, Chuck Klein, and Ed Delahanty, and the first Phillie to do it since Schmidt in 1976. J.T. Realmuto, Max Kepler, and Bryce Harper each added a solo homer to round out the seven.
Less than a month later, Sosa, Schwarber, Stott, Bohm, and Kemp combined to push the record to eight, a mark that still stands as the most home runs the Phillies have ever hit in a single game.
A long road to the spotlight
Sosa’s path to that night began far from Philadelphia. Born in Panama City, Panama, he signed with the St. Louis Cardinals as a 16 year old international free agent in 2012 and spent nearly a decade working through their farm system and later their major league roster before Philadelphia acquired him in a July 2022 trade for pitcher JoJo Romero. He quickly made himself useful in October of that year, scoring an insurance run and making a game ending catch during the Phillies’ Wild Card Series win.
In Philadelphia, Sosa carved out a role as a versatile reserve rather than an everyday player, moving between shortstop, second base, third base, and even the outfield. He has compared his job to that of a sixth man on a basketball team, someone who accepts a supporting role but still expects to make an impact when his number is called. On September 24, 2025, his number was called three times, and Sosa delivered a game that no Phillies shortstop, and very few Phillies players of any kind, had ever produced before.
Philadelphia Baseball Events for September 24
- September 24, 1903 – Hugh Duffy was signed to manage the Phillies starting with the 1904 season.
- September 24, 1911 – Grover Cleveland Alexander’s 41 consecutive scoreless innings streak ended when the Cardinals scored in the sixth inning of an 8-2 Phillies win at Robison Field; the record stood until Cristopher Sánchez broke it in 2026.
- September 24, 1916 – The Philadelphia Athletics beat the St. Louis Browns 2-0 in the opener of a doubleheader, handing George Sisler a complete-game loss.
- September 24, 1919 – Fred Luderus was honored between games of a doubleheader with a gold watch and diamond stickpin for playing in his 525th consecutive game, though the Brooklyn Robins swept both ends.
- September 24, 1944 – The Cardinals beat the Phillies 4-3 in 16 innings at Shibe Park, scoring the winning run after both teams were held scoreless from the eighth through the 15th.
- September 24, 1971 – Cubs pitcher Milt Pappas struck out the side on nine pitches – an immaculate inning – against the Phillies.
- September 24, 2007 – Phillies claimed outfielder T.J. Bohn off waivers from the Atlanta Braves.
- September 24, 2011 – Phillies dropped both ends of a doubleheader to the Mets, an eighth straight loss that set an MLB record for most consecutive losses by a team with 95-plus wins in a season – coming despite having already clinched the NL East.
- September 24, 2021 – Didi Gregorius hit a three-run homer in the seventh inning to lift the Phillies to an 8-6 comeback win over the Pirates.
Philadelphia Baseball Birthdays for September 24
- Cyclone Miller (born 1859) – Left-handed pitcher who made his only major league appearance for the Philadelphia Quakers, the franchise’s direct predecessor, in 1884, taking a complete-game loss.
- Paul Spoljaric (born 1970) – Left-handed reliever who had a brief Phillies stint in 1999 before being traded back to Toronto that May, over a career that also included the Mariners and Royals.
- Carlton Loewer (born 1973) – Right-handed starter and the Phillies’ first-round pick in 1994, he pitched for the club in 1998-99 (including a complete-game shutout in his debut) before being traded to San Diego for Andy Ashby.
- John McDonald (born 1974) – Slick-fielding utility infielder acquired by the Phillies in mid-2013 as a defensive replacement during his 16-year career, known for a .974 career fielding percentage, before being traded to Boston that August.
Please scroll down to comment on this story or to give it a rating. We appreciate your feedback!
Disclaimer: Some of the products featured or linked on this website may generate income for Philly Baseball News through affiliate commissions, sponsorships, or direct sales. We only promote items we believe in, but please assume that PBN may earn a cut from qualifying purchases that you make using a link on this site.
© 2026 LV Sports Media. All rights reserved.
