HOUSTON — J.T. Realmuto waited nine years and 1,005 regular season games to play his first World Series game. And when it was over, after he had played one of the handful of best World Series games ever by a catcher, Realmuto could not partake in the postgame spread.
“I don’t think I can chew,” Realmuto says. “My jaw is really sore. But that’s O.K. As long as it’s not my head, I’m good.”
In the sixth inning of World Series Game 1 on Friday, the Phillies catcher took a foul ball off his mask that staggered him as if he had taken a violent punch.
“Did it feel as bad as it looked?” he says, repeating a question. “I’m not going to lie. Yeah. It was pretty bad.”
That virtual haymaker will be but a footnote when history remembers what Realmuto did in Game 1. But the footnote bears your attention, for the value and valor of Realmuto cannot be fully appreciated without it.
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Realmuto became the first catcher since Carlton Fisk in 1975 to hit an extra-inning home run in a World Series game, sending the Phillies to a 6–5 win over a stunned Astros team. Understand what preceded that swing: after catching all 1,690 pitches Philadelphia pitchers have thrown this postseason, including 143 through nine innings of Game 1, after taking the foul ball off the jaw, after tying the game with a two-run double off Houston ace Justin Verlander in the fifth inning, after falling behind leading off the 10th inning 1-and-2 to Luis Garcia, a pitcher he had never seen before, after laying off two cutters down and away to get the count full, after choking up on the bat to go into full two-strike mode ... only then did Realmuto go all Carlton Fisk on the Astros.
“He is the absolute best catcher in baseball,” pitching coach Caleb Cotham says. “His performance is elite. That’s a given. But what he doesn’t get enough credit for is the volume of what he does. He does it all. He is the rock for every pitcher on this staff.”
Fisk’s home run triggered the “Hallelujah” chorus on the Fenway Park organ and sent church bells tolling across New England in late night celebration. Realmuto’s homer should sound a harsh alarm buzzer in the heads of the Astros. Houston lost a game in which Verlander held a 5–0 lead. Its bullpen was out-pitched by the Philadelphia bullpen.
“They counted us out and figured they had the game won,” one Phillie says. “But if they’ve been paying attention, they know this team is special. And if they haven’t, good, we can shock the world.”
Every night it seems fate winks at the Phillies: base hits off bags, the sun getting in outfielders’ eyes, opposing managers not using their best arms in big spots, Alec Bohm and Nick Castellanos suddenly transforming into Gold Glovers ... and line drives that don’t stick in pitcher’s gloves. Realmuto hit a liner into Verlander’s glove in the fourth that should have been an easy inning-ending double play, because the runner at first, Rhys Hoskins, was too far off the bag.
But the ball did not stick in Verlander’s glove. It rolled out. He recovered to get Realmuto at first base, but the inning still had a pulse. Three batters later—single, single, double; all off breaking pitches as Verlander curiously abandoned his fastball—the Phillies were back in the game at 5–3 instead of remaining down 5–0. Realmuto tied it the next inning with his double.
By now, having gone 10–2 this postseason against teams that won 93, 101, 89 and 106 games, the Phillies believe they are invincible. They are the most dangerous 87-win team ever assembled. More than fate, however, grit is carrying them. The Phillies are stocked with players aged 24–32—the sweet spot of a career, especially when you’ve never won anything. Only four players on their 26-man roster had ever played in a World Series before. They are motivated by a common goal: to win. Many have waited long for the chance. As second baseman Jean Segura put it, “I’m at a point in my career where I feel like I got everything I want. Financially, I’m good. I just want to win.”
That commonality is what makes Philadelphia so dangerous. And no one better personifies the will of this team than Realmuto, who until last year had never played on a winning team.
“He deserves MVP votes,” says left fielder Kyle Schwarber. “He has done it all for us this year.”
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World Series Game 1 was Realmuto’s 151st game this year, his 145th behind the plate.
“My body feels better now than it has all year,” he says. “I’ve never felt this good at the end of a season. I’ve found a good program to take care of my body. I’ve always changed things and added things every year, but this is the program I’m going to stick with.”
Realmuto’s program begins with getting his legs massaged every day after pre-game batting practice. After games, he does strength training. He will do three exercises—varying the trio, depending on whether it’s a lower or upper body day.
“I will literally take my jersey off and head straight to the workout room,” he says. “In the past, I would wait until I had a day off, then dive into a full workout. But when you do that, you lose the idea of a full off-day to recover. By doing the three exercises—no more, no less—I’m working out while my body is still warm and I’m not beating up my body the way a full workout can.”
As the Astros can attest, it’s working. After posting a .949 OPS in the second half, he is putting up an .842 OPS in the postseason. In Game 1 he joined a very short but illustrious group of catchers who reached base three times with three RBIs and six total bases in a World Series game: Gary Carter, Tim McCarver, Yogi Berra and Roy Campanella. None ever did it from the third spot in the lineup, as Realmuto did.
After what will be heretofore known as The Realmuto Game, the Phillies have seized the upper hand in the series and will send their best pitcher, Zack Wheeler, to the mound in Game 2 with a chance to go home with a two games to none lead at the Bank on Halloween night. Scary stuff for Houston.
Of course, Realmuto will be behind the plate, not just taking foul balls to the jaw but guiding his pitcher through the game. Wheeler wants very little scouting information, even when it comes to the World Series and the Astros, a team he has never faced before. He wants only basic information about which Houston hitter swings early in the count and what pitches can generate chase swings from which hitters.
“I don’t want a whole lot of information,” Wheeler says. “I rely on J.T. He’s so good back there at putting together a game plan and reading swings. I’ve always relied on my catcher a lot, but especially with J.T.”
The Astros, the 2007 Rockies and the 2014 Royals entered their World Series undefeated, the only teams to do so in the wild-card era. All lost Game 1. The Rockies and Royals wound up losing the Series, as well. Now Houston knows the Phillies can take a punch, as Realmuto’s iron jaw proved. They should know, too, that with their unbreakable catcher, the Phillies are dangerous.
Long after the game, and after Realmuto had recalled his night for several interviews and press conferences, his jaw was still smarting. But some things don’t change. When he is asked if he attended to his daily three post-game exercises, Realmuto smiles and says, “Oh, yeah. Got my workout in right before I talked to you guys.”
