Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber crushed home runs as the Philadelphia Phillies defeated the San Diego Padres, 2-0, on the road in their National League Championship Series opener on Tuesday.

Harper blasted a 368-foot shot into left field off Padres pitcher Yu Darvish to open the scoring in the top of the fourth inning at Petco Park.

Schwarber then obliterated an inviting Darvish cutter in the top of the sixth inning to give the Phillies a 2-0 lead.

San Diego, who upset the Los Angeles Dodgers in a raucous division series victory last Saturday, were unable to get their bats into the game in the face of a gem from Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler.

Wheeler delivered seven scoreless innings with just one hit and eight strikeouts to lay the foundations for a crucial win against the underdog Phillies.

Phillies closer Jose Alvarado had a nervous start to the bottom of the ninth inning, allowing Jurickson Profar and Juan Soto to get on base, before sealing the win with the outs of Manny Machado and Josh Bell in quick succession.

The winner of the best-of-seven NLCS will meet either the New York Yankees or the Houston Astros in the World Series.

The Yankees advanced to an American League Championship Series showdown with the Astros after downing the Cleveland Guardians, 5-1, earlier Tuesday.

Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge bagged home runs to give the Yankees a 3-2 series victory in a game that had been delayed 24 hours after rain washed out play on Monday.

"We know we've got a big challenge now going to Houston but we look forward to it," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said after the win, paying tribute to the hitting of Stanton and Judge.

"When those guys are rolling it makes it challenging," Boone said.