Philadelphia Front Page News - Sports News - Phils 6-5 victory over the Astros’ takes the Series lead

Philadelphia Front Page News - Sports News - Phils 6-5 victory over the Astros’ takes the Series lead 

 

Phillies’ J.T. Realmuto puts skill, durability on display in World Series comeback.

 

The foul tip staggered J.T. Realmuto, careening off his jaw, sending his mask flying, knocking him backward.

“You all right?” plate umpire James Hoye asked the Phillies' catcher. “Stay there a minute.”

Phillies manager Rob Thomson and head athletic trainer Paul Buchheit raced to home plate to check on Realmuto. The score was tied, 5-5, with two outs in the sixth inning in Game 1 of the World Series. Watching from the dugout, Phillies backup catcher Garrett Stubbs never even considered the possibility he might enter the game.

“I didn’t move,” Stubbs said. “That guy’s not coming out for anything.”

Realmuto, 31, already had produced one of the biggest hits of the night, a two-run double off Justin Verlander that tied the score in the fifth inning, completing the Phillies’ comeback from a 5-0 deficit. Little did anyone know, he would deliver an even bigger hit later, in his 145th game as a catcher this season and 151st overall, including the playoffs.

At the moment, Realmuto just needed to collect himself after getting nailed by Chas McCormick’s foul tip.

“Honestly, my head wasn’t the problem. It just smoked my jaw pretty good,” Realmuto said. “It’s probably not going to be very easy for me to eat dinner tonight, but as long as my head’s OK, I’ll be good to go.”

Such is life for a major-league catcher. Realmuto, though, is not just any catcher. He is the most durable. The most athletic. The best baserunner and best thrower. And now, the hero of a classic World Series game.

Realmuto’s leadoff home run off the Astros' Luis Garcia in the 10th inning gave the Phillies the lead. He then caught the final three outs of a 6-5 victory that shattered the Astros’ air of invincibility and signaled that the Phils indeed might be capable of pulling off one of the bigger upsets in Series history.

His dinner went down easy, even if chewing was hard.

On May 22, Realmuto was batting .224 with a .613 OPS. Slogging through the second year of a five-year, $115.5 million contract, it appeared he might become the latest example of a catcher who starts to fade in his early 30s.

As it turned out, any such judgment was premature.

Realmuto ended up batting .276 with an .820 OPS. His 22 homers and 21 stolen bases made him only the second catcher to produce a 20-20 season, after Ivan Rodriguez in 1999. His offensive production, when adjusted to his park and league, was the best of his career. He likely will be a top 10 finisher in the National League MVP balloting based upon his regular-season performance, maybe even a top five.

“Joe Mauer and Buster Posey are probably the best comps for J.T.,” said Phillies pitcher Kyle Gibson, referring to two retired catchers, one of whom was his former teammate with the Twins. “But in the game right now, there’s nobody.”

By the time Mauer was Realmuto’s age, his time as a catcher had ended because of a concussion. Posey won three World Series with the Giants and for his career threw out 33 percent of runners attempting to steal. Realmuto’s career rate is 36 percent, including a league-best 44 percent this season. One more interesting comparison: Posey stole 23 bases in his career. Realmuto stole 21 in 22 attempts this season, finally getting thrown out by the Astros’ Martin Maldonado on the next-to-last day of the season.

Rounding the bases after his homer, he said all he could think about was that the Phillies needed three more outs, against the heart of the Astros’ order.
The home run was his third of the postseason; his first, in Game 4 of the Division Series against the Braves, was historic in its own right, the first inside-the-park homer by a catcher in the postseason. His shot off Garcia was of the more traditional variety, and it reminded Gibson of the opposite-field homer Realmuto hit off Gregory Soto in last year’s All-Star Game at Coors Field.

“When he’s going good, he’s got some real juice to right field,” Gibson said. “When he’s doing that, it’s a good sign.”

Realmuto has now reached safely in 11 of the Phillies’ 12 postseason games, batting .267 with an .842 OPS. He also excelled behind the plate in Game 1, guiding the Phillies’ bullpen through 5 2/3 scoreless innings, and nearly throwing out Jose Altuve attempting to steal second in the bottom of the ninth. The Phillies challenged the safe call, but the ruling was upheld. Right fielder Nick Castellanos made a diving catch on the next batter, Jeremy Pena, robbing the Astros of a potential walk-off hit.

“Dang it,” Hoskins thought, watching the ball in the air.

The next plate appearance of the game was Realmuto’s homer. Stunning as it was, the Phillies almost have come to expect as much from their catcher, even as he absorbs foul tip after foul tip, plays inning after inning, game after game. “I don’t think any of us are shocked,” Harper said. “He’s not just a catcher. He’s an athlete.”

And, of course, as tough as they come. Stubbs, seeing Realmuto take the blow to his jaw in the sixth, was unfazed. He knew his fellow catcher just needed a moment to recover.

“Unless he’s missing an arm, that guy is in the game and he’s going to be grinding out all nine innings, or plus,” Stubbs said.

Friday night it was plus. And Realmuto still had something more to give.