J.T. Realmuto ‘definitely feeling good at the plate’ in much-needed hot stretch for Phillies

KANSAS CITY — A silver lining on an otherwise miserable Friday night for the Philadelphia Phillies was that catcher J.T. Realmuto went 2-for-4 and scored a run in the series-opener against the Royals.

Following a series of questions about struggling pitcher Taijuan Walker, Realmuto was asked if he feels like he’s gotten going offensively at the plate in recent weeks.

“I wouldn’t necessarily say gotten going yet, but I have started to feel better,” Realmuto said. “My timing feels good … I feel like I’m making good swing decisions and not chasing for the most part. I just gotta keep doing that and swinging at good pitches, and usually good things happen.”

A night later, it’s clear that the three-time All-Star catcher has gotten going, a welcome sign for a Phillies team looking to escape a nearly two-month stretch of underwhelming baseball and get back to the form that made them look like the World Series favorites at the end of June.

In addition to gunning down a would-be basestealer to end the bottom of the third inning, Realmuto hit a pair of three-run home runs in Saturday evening’s win over the Royals. He added a seventh RBI in the form of a run-scoring groundout that plated Nick Castellanos in the top of the ninth inning.

“Ideally yeah, keep this going for a little while,” Realmuto said postgame with a smile when asked if he now believes he’s gotten going. “But yeah, definitely feeling good at the plate.”

It was Realmuto’s first multi-home run game since Sept. 14, 2022. Heck, the first of the two home runs that Realmuto hit on the night — a mammoth blast that gave the Phillies a 5-1 lead in the top of the sixth — was his first home run since Aug. 8.

The seven RBIs that Realmuto posted Friday set a career-high. The last time that Realmuto had six RBIs in a game came nearly a decade ago, when as a rookie for the Miami Marlins he drove in six runs in an Aug. 12, 2015 win over the Boston Red Sox. If you need any further context on how long ago that was, Realmuto hit one spot above Ichiro Suzuki in Miami’s lineup that day.

Overall, Realmuto is now hitting .348 since Aug. 7. It’s very much a welcome sign for someone that was hitting just .246 with a .675 OPS up until that point, having also missed more than a month between June and July as he recovered from surgery on his right knee.

Realmuto caught Ranger Suárez, who limited the Royals to just four hits and one run over five innings in his first start since July 22. Suárez pointed out postgame how well the team played overall, with Realmuto, of course, at the forefront of that.

“The truth is that J.T. is a great hitter,” Suárez said through interpreter Diego D’Aniello. “Of course, he had the seven RBIs today, but I think he’s shown time and time again that he’s capable of doing that every night out.

“I’m just happy that he was able to do that,” Suárez continued. “We know that’s the first time that he had seven RBIs in a game, but again, he’s just a guy that we know that he can do that every single day.”

Bryson Stott also had quite the night himself, going 4-for-4 with two runs scored. He was on first base when Realmuto hit his first home run of the night on a 3-0 count, and says that first base coach Paco Figueroa actually called the blast.

“Yeah, that was sick,” Stott said of Realmuto’s night.

“I was on first on the 3-0 home run,” Stott continued. “First pitch he threw in the dirt and I told Paco I was gonna steal and he said ‘Let’s just wait a second.’ And he got to 3-0 and Paco said ‘I hope he hits a home run right here.’ And he did. That was pretty cool, he called that one.”

Stott’s overall assessment of Realmuto was short and sweet.

“He’s a very good hitter, and it’s pretty cool to see those balls go a long way when he hits them,” Stott said.

At his best, Realmuto is a very good hitter. The 33-year-old has taken on an insane workload behind the plate since joining the Phillies in 2019, and eventually that catches up to you. But if Saturday was the first sign that he’s about to go on a heater for the remainder of the season, a Phillies team with World Series aspirations would certainly welcome one more incredible stretch at the plate from their catcher.

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