95TH MLB ALL-STAR GAME

July 15, 2025

Kyle Schwarber

Truist Park

National League

Press Conference

NL - 7, AL - 6 (swing-off 4-3)

THE MODERATOR: Kyle. Congratulations. Ted Williams All-Star MVP.

Q. Hey, Kyle. Usually, you take BP before the game, not after it. Can you kind of describe the degree of difficulty in what you just had to do there?

KYLE SCHWARBER: Interesting. A little nervous. I think the first swing was kind of the big one. I was just really trying to, say, hit a line drive versus trying to hit the home run. Usually, that tends to work out, especially in games.

I was just saying there's a lot of guys who are way more deserving of this award, but just happy that it's going to be -- we get a win with the National League and it's going to come home with us to Philly.

Q. Kyle, congratulations. First Philly, I think, to win this award since 1964, if I'm not mistaken. A lot of great players in the organization. Could you reflect on that?

KYLE SCHWARBER: It's an honor. I think just being able to be here at the All-Star Game and representing the organization and our city and my teammates, it never goes not noted. It's a great honor. Hopefully, it's going to be something that you can -- you're going to hold -- it's going to be something you can hold on to forever. Hopefully, it will be a cool moment there for the Phillies for a little while.

Q. Kyle, Dave said he had to set up his lineup for this yesterday. What was your thought when you got asked? You guys were up 6-0, I'm assuming it wasn't in your head it might happen. At what point did you start to think this could actually happen?

KYLE SCHWARBER: Dave asked yesterday, pretty much just asked, if there's a tie, would you do it? I said, absolutely. Not thinking that we were going to end up in a tie when you say yes. And then as the game's going, you're looking at the score, you're not really thinking the game's going to end in a tie. This guy slaps some good at-bats there on some of our guys in the ninth inning, too. Had a good hustle play to get down to first. I thought that Matt with that big defensive play there in the ninth, kind of the diving backhand was going to seal it for us. But had a good hustle play. Then we were tied.

Frickin' broke my bat in the ninth off a 100-mile-an-hour sinker. Well, I have to go get a new bat now. Went up, got the new bat, waited my turn.

Q. You've done the Home Run Derby before. How much different it is when you know you only have three swings?

KYLE SCHWARBER: It's different. It definitely is different when you know the situation, too, what's going on, where they had 2, we had 1. I think it was, what was it? It was -- they had 3 at the time. So I'm just trying to put in my head, like, well, if I can get two here and give it to Pete to try to finish it off, and I go two right away and was able to sneak the third one out. Didn't realize -- realizing we got in a good situation. Hopefully, if Pete comes up, he'll be able to seal the deal for us.

Q. How much strategy goes into it, especially when working with Dino Ebel, somebody you have never taken swings off before? Did you talk about where you wanted the ball?

KYLE SCHWARBER: Luckily, I've faced Dino in the World Baseball Classic. He was on the coaching staff. He's got great BP. A lot of credit goes to him, too, just kind of getting thrown into the firestorm there and not being rattled by it, being able to keep pumping really good strikes to us.

Having the familiarity, and he asked me right before, he was like, where do you want it? I'm like, just middle. And he's like, I gotcha. So a lot of credit goes to him, too, for the National League bringing it home.

Q. It's kind of a light-hearted thing, but where does this rank of your career highlight moments, like going through that? How do you contextualize that?

KYLE SCHWARBER: That's a great question. I don't know. It just happened. I've always said, and I know a lot of our Philly people know this. Whenever they ask me a question like that, I think it's more going to settle in when you're done, all said and done, you're going to be able to kind of look back at your whole career and realize all the really cool things that you were able to participate in or take part in and realize how special the journey all was because it doesn't last long, and you want to just make the most of it.

Q. Did you ever watch a soccer game decided by penalty kicks and think you, as a baseball player, could be involved in sort of something like that?

KYLE SCHWARBER: That's a great representation, I guess. I'd never really thought about it like that. But, yeah. Definitely kind of, now that you say that, makes you feel like it's a penalty kick. It's NHL going into the shots there.

Yeah, I mean, the shootout. So that was like the baseball version of a shootout or extra time. So it was really fun. I credit the guys, too, on our side who were really into it. They were cheering along. The fans were into it. Watching the last guy there and we were all kind of just really into it, hoping that last ball wasn't going to sneak out or the one before that that hit off the wall that didn't sneak out and ended up going our way.

Q. When you went down to one knee on the last one, did you think you got it?

KYLE SCHWARBER: I was really hoping it was going to go. I didn't hit it, obviously, my best, but I was thinking I got enough of it, and I was just kind of down there, hoping, saying go, go, go. And it went. And it was awesome.

Q. You mentioned the crowd. What was it like to hear the crowd filled with mostly Braves fans cheering you on this time?

KYLE SCHWARBER: Yeah, it was interesting. It was funny. Being next to the Mets guys there on the line, we were saying, who do you think's going to get it more? Us or them or me? And they're like, you, for sure. But it was fun. It was a fun night. We love those kind of things when, obviously, we have division rivalries and everything like that. The fans take perspective to that. And us, as baseball players, we appreciate that. Also, when you have them on your side trying to push the NL over the top, it was really cool.

Q. Kyle, when this rule was first implemented with the new CBA, what did you guys, as players, think of the possibility of having to do a swing-off?

KYLE SCHWARBER: I think it's a good idea, just for the fact of we're not, hopefully, putting more people at any other kind of risk, I guess, that they're not playing -- we're not playing more innings, things like that. Obviously, things can happen during the game. We saw that tonight.

I think, luckily, hopefully he's going to be all right. But, yeah, when that happens, you're more thinking, one, it's really probably not going to happen. Then it does happen. Just excited that it was able to work out for us.

Q. Being a part of the swing-off and then having ABS, too, involved in this game, what are your thoughts on the evolution of the All-Star Game?

KYLE SCHWARBER: It's interesting. I think it's a unique way for the league to kind of try different things. I think, obviously, you heard Manfred say ABS will be coming into the league at some point. To have it kind of out there for the fans to see what it will look like in a real situational game that things are on the line, I think it was just a way for them to see that. Obviously, there with the swing-off, I don't know if that's in the plans or not. Hopefully, you know, we just keep the extra inning things going on for as long as we can.

It's a unique way to get the fans a little bit of perspective of what we go through on a day-to-day basis.

Q. Kyle, congratulations. The city of Philly is quite rowdy and the All-Star Game will be there next year. What are your initial expectations of how Philly is going to react?

KYLE SCHWARBER: We were actually talking about it today, that it's going to be an exciting time in Philly next year when this is going to be coming there. I know our fan base is going to be rambunctious and they'll be looking forward to seeing whatever Philly representatives are going to be there, but also I'm sure there's going to be more, as you would say, letting the division rivals know that they're in Philly.

But it will be a great time overall. I know that they love big games. They love high stakes. I think that's something that our fans in Philly are going to really enjoy next year. Thanks.