PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia slugger Kyle Schwarber hit four home runs Thursday night against Atlanta to become the 21st major leaguer and fourth Phillies player to accomplish the feat.

Schwarber was 4-for-6 with a Phillies-record nine RBI in the 19-4 victory. He took the outright National League homer lead with a career-high 49 and moved within one of Seattle’s Cal Raleigh for the major league lead. Schwarber leads the majors with a career-high 119 RBIs.

“It’s pretty cool,” Schwarber said. “It was a fun night, great atmosphere. Wouldn’t want to do it with a better group of guys than we have here.”

Mike Schmidt was the last Philadelphia player to hit four homers in a game, doing so at the Chicago Cubs in April 1976. Schwarber had the third four-homer game of the season, following Eugenio Suárez and Nick Kurtz.

Schwarber’s 49 homers passed Ryan Howard (2008) and Schmidt (1980) for the second most in a season in Phillies history, trailing only Ryan Howard’s 58 in 2006.

“It just cooperated,” said Schwarber, who had entered the game hitless in his last 20 at-bats, by far the longest such streak entering a four-home run game since 1900. “You can do everything right and get out, and you can do everything wrong and get a hit. Got some pitches and put some good swings on it.”

Schwarber started the power surge with a solo shot in the first inning off Cal Quantrill, sending a 2-1 curveball into the right-field seats. Schwarber hit a flyout to center in the second.

After Quantrill was lifted with one out and two runners on base in the fourth, Schwarber greeted lefty Austin Cox by sending a 3-2 curveball over the wall in right for his fourth multihomer game of the season.

With “M-V-P! M-V-P!” chants ringing down from Phillies fans in the fifth, Schwarber launched a three-run drive to left off Cox to put Philadelphia ahead 15-3. In the seventh, Schwarber hit a three-run shot to right off Wander Suero to make it 18-4.

Schwarber popped out in the eighth against Braves third baseman Vidal Brujan.

“I stink against position players,” Schwarber said jokingly. “All you’re trying to do is get a good pitch. I got the pitch. Just popped it up.”

Schwarber, 32, has 333 homers in 11 seasons in the majors primarily with the Cubs and Phillies. He had a previous career high of 47 home runs in 2023 for Philadelphia.

The Associated Press and ESPN Research contributed to this report.

Texas Rangers shortstop Corey Seager had an appendectomy Thursday after experiencing abdominal pain during a game the previous night.

Chris Young, the team’s president of baseball operations, said Seager had surgery in Texas after the team traveled to California for the start of a series against the Athletics on Friday night.

Young said it was too early to know how much time the two-time World Series MVP will miss.

“Corey, he’s extremely impactful for our team, and at this point in the season, with everything we’ve experienced thus far, that’s a tough blow,” Young said. “… I will express that Corey did not want to rule out the season, and in fact, he’s been researching athletes who’ve come back from this quickly.”

Seager will be placed on the 10-day injured list and the Rangers will call up utility player Dylan Moore, who had just been signed to a minor league contract after being released by AL West rival Seattle. Center fielder Evan Carter (broken right wrist) is going to be transferred to the 60-day IL to make room on the 40-man roster.

Young said Josh Smith is expected to see the majority of time at shortstop while Seager is out.

It was initially thought that Seager came out of their 20-3 win over the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday night because of the lopsided score. The Rangers were up 11-1, and he hit his team-leading 21st homer and scored three times before manager Bruce Bochy replaced Seager in the field in the top of the fifth inning.

“So did I,” Young said. “Boch was taking him out anyway, but the timing kind of lined up simultaneously.”

Young said Seager had experienced some pain before the game, but nothing that concerned the team or the shortstop. But that pain increased while playing, and he was diagnosed with appendicitis when he was evaluated after coming out of the game.

The Rangers, who have won five of their past six games, are 4½ games behind the Seattle Mariners for the final American League wild-card spot. They also must leapfrog the Kansas City Royals, who are 1½ games ahead of the Rangers.

“Nobody’s going to feel sorry for us, and we can’t feel sorry for ourselves,” Young said. “… In the last week, we’ve shown great resilience. I’m extremely proud of our group and our guys and the way they fought. I expect them to continue fighting. We’ll see what happens. I put no limitations on what a group of guys can do when they believe in each other.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

NEW YORK — In his latest setback, Mets catcher Francisco Alvarez was diagnosed with a fracture in the pinkie finger in his left hand, manager Carlos Mendoza said Thursday.

Alvarez, 23, sustained the injury when he was hit by a pitch on his left hand during a game for Triple-A Syracuse on Wednesday. Mendoza said Alvarez will wait until the inflammation in the finger diminishes — he estimated two or three days — before resuming baseball activities. The third-year catcher was already on the injured list and on rehab assignment because of an ulnar collateral ligament sprain in his right thumb.

“This should be relatively short,” Mendoza said. “But, again, it’s a little bit of a setback compared to what the original plan was. But when you’re talking about you get the news, ‘Oh, he’s got a fracture,’ you’re thinking about the worst-case scenario, but apparently, that’s not the case here. So we just got to wait and see.”

This is Alvarez’s fourth hand injury in the past two years. Last season, he underwent surgery to repair a torn ligament in his right thumb and missed nearly two months. This spring, he fractured his left hamate bone and missed the first month of the regular season.

His recent UCL sprain happened while sliding headfirst into second base Aug. 17. It’s the same thumb that he hurt last year. The UCL sprain will require surgery to heal, but the Mets are hopeful he can postpone the procedure until the offseason to avoid missing the remainder of the season. The surgery requires an eight-week recovery timetable. Instead, doctors cleared him to play as long as he can tolerate the pain in his throwing hand. Tearing it completely, however, would require surgery sooner and end his season. Now, he’s dealing with a fracture in his receiving hand.

“We’re not going to put him in a position where he’s very uncomfortable,” Mendoza said. “As tough as he is, he’s human. So, I think we got to get him to a point where it’s manageable because now we’re talking about the receiving hand, too. But, again, it’s a small fracture and we just got to wait. But it comes down to making sure we’re not putting the player in a position where he’s in danger.”

Alvarez played in his first rehab game for the UCL sprain Wednesday. He went 1-for-2 with a walk and was behind the plate for five innings. His right thumb was not tested by baserunners.

“The ball was coming out fine,” Mendoza said. “Good intensity, good carry. But, again, we got to wait and see when it happens in real action. When he’s got to do the transfer and get the ball in the air as quick as possible and put something on the throw. But, so far, in between innings yesterday, the five innings that he caught, he was fine.”

The UCL sprain interrupted Alvarez’s best stretch of the season, which began with him struggling so badly that the Mets optioned him to Syracuse in late June. Alvarez was batting .236 with three home runs and a .652 OPS in 35 games when he was sent down. He returned a month later to hit .323 with four home runs and a 1.054 OPS in 21 games until his thumb injury.

Without him, the Mets will continue rotating veteran Luis Torrens and rookie Hayden Senger behind the plate.

“It’s been hard for him,” Mendoza said.