Kyle Schwarber puts exclamation point in Phillies' Game 1 win

SAN DIEGO — There are only so many ways human beings can describe an event that occupies fewer than three seconds of their lives, a fact that was put to the test repeatedly after Kyle Schwarber hit a 488-foot home run in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series on Tuesday night at Petco Park.

Schwarber's sixth-inning solo homer — the longest in the 18-year history of Petco Park — in the Philadelphia Phillies' 2-0 win over the San Diego Padres provided a brief but stunning moment of energy on a night that was defined by a distinct lack of activity.

The combined totals: four hits, eight baserunners, 20 strikeouts. It had a couple of moments, but this was not a stirring advertisement for the game.

The Phillies won because two of the hits were solo homers — Bryce Harper's in the fourth, then Schwarber's — and because Phillies starter Zack Wheeler ground the Padres lineup into a fine paste over seven innings of one-hit, 8-strikeout mastery.

Wheeler, who has allowed just three earned runs in 19 1/3 postseason innings this October, came out with a show of dominance in the first inning, putting together a string of 98 and 99 mph fastballs with late movement. Once that was implanted in the minds of the Padres hitters, he was free to use his breaking pitches to induce soft — or no — contact. He threw just 83 pitches and was removed after his velocity ticked down in his final inning, but he allowed just two baserunners, a walk to Juan Soto in the first and a single up the middle by Wil Myers in the fifth.

For the Padres, a 2-0 count constituted a rally.

«Seemed like the curveball was the equalizer for him,» Phillies first baseman Rhys Hoskins said. «Obviously it's a good fastball always with him, but he threw a ton of good