Philadelphia Phillies fans react as Kyle Schwarber outfield botch spurs Atlanta Braves to victory: "It is actually insane how bad he is at fielding"

Kyle Schwarber had a rough day for the Philadelphia Phillies. Schwarber, a custom-made designated hitter forced to play left field due to the Phillies' plague of injuries this season, muffed a running attempt at a catch that directly led to an Atlanta Braves extra-inning win on Thursday.

The Philadelphia Phillies were trailing the Braves 1-0 in the 10th inning at Citizens Bank Park with two Atlanta runners on, two outs and slugger Austin Riley at the plate.

Phillies reliever Yunior Marte coaxed Riley into looping a dying quail into left field as Kyle Schwarber charged forward to catch it. The nine-year MLB veteran got to the ball, but suddenly forgot how to close his glove properly and dropped the potential inning-ending out.

Instead of three outs, the Braves logged two runs to take a 3-0 lead. Controversially, the hit was ruled a single for Riley, though it should have been easily scored an error.

The Braves remained alive, and extended the lead further as the next Atlanta batter, designated hitter Marcell Ozuna, clubbed a two-run home run to put the visitors up 5-0.

The Philadelphia Phillies mustered up a lone tally in the bottom of the 10th as Alec Bohm drove home J.T. Realmuto with what could have been a tying run had Kyle Schwarber made his catch minutes earlier.

As it was, the single score was not enough as the Phillies lost 5-1 to drop 10 games behind the National League-leading Braves.

It hasn't been much of a season as a whole for Kyle Schwarber. After a sparkling 2022 in which he hit an NL-leading 46 homers (with an MLB-leading 200 strikeouts), his 2023 is becoming even more all-or nothing.

In his second campaign with the Philadelphia Phillies, Schwarber is on pace to come close to his homer mark of a year ago as he has 20 round-trippers, but his batting average is .191.

Schwarber has never hit for much average – he's at .229 for his career – but his current .191 translated over a full season would be the worst for a full campaign in the majors. He hit .188 in 2020, but that season was abbreviated to 60 games due to COVID-19.

In a perfect world, Kyle Schwarber is the Philadelphia Phillies' DH

Kyle Schwarber of the Philadelphia Phillies reacts after striking out.

If and when Phillies superstar Bryce Harper is given clearance to play the field, it is highly likely that Schwarber will take over as DH.

Philadelphia features Brandon Marsh in center field and Nick Castellanos in right field. Harper is serving as the DH as he continues to recover from Tommy John surgery.