J.T. Realmuto extended his hitting streak to 12 games on Wednesday. (Grace Del Pizzo/Phillies Nation)
Final Score: Phillies 11, Rangers 4
When Trea Turner was placed on the injured list with a hamstring injury on May 4, it was looked at as the first real test for the Phillies in 2024. Turner was off to a great start and it would be hard to replace him, both at shortstop and in the batting order.
J.T. Realmuto, after mostly hitting in the middle-third of the lineup to start the year, was put in the second spot of the batting order to offensively replace Turner. Meanwhile, it looked like a combination of Edmundo Sosa and Bryson Stott would log most innings at short.
Since that time, Realmuto has done nothing but produce as the club’s main No. 2 hitter. Meanwhile, Sosa has taken over as the Phillies’ main shortstop — with Stott mostly playing second base — thanks to his offense and defense.
Realmuto brought an 11-game hitting streak and .345/.390/.436 May slash line into Wednesday’s game. Sosa was hitting .289/.413/.447 across 47 May plate appearances.
Both players continued their impressive play in their second of three games against the Rangers this week. Realmuto and Sosa each homered and recorded three RBIs. Sosa also made a nice defensive play in the fifth inning as he backhanded a ball in the hole and threw it to Stott to record a force out at second base.
Altogether, Realmuto and Sosa combined to go 3-for-9 with six RBIs and three runs in the Phillies’ 11-4 win over Texas.
Rob Thomson’s club is now 14-3 since their dynamic, $300-million shortstop hit the injured list nearly three weeks ago. And it’s been Turner’s replacements in Realmuto and Sosa that have helped the Phillies sustain their winning ways and ace their first real test of the year.
Highlights
Texas scored the first two runs of the game. Josh Smith drove in a run in the top of the first by ripping a single through the right side of the infield. An inning later, Leody Taveras smoked a two-out, 437-foot solo home run into the center-field shrubbery.
Thanks to a pair of Texas errors, the Phillies scored a pair of their own runs to tie the game in the bottom of the second. Alec Bohm reached first base to start the inning because of an error charged to first baseman Nathaniel Lowe. Bohm eventually scored on a single by Brandon Marsh.
Later in the second, Marsh left early in an attempt to steal second base. He would’ve been picked off, but a throwing error by pitcher Dane Dunning allowed Marsh to reach second safely and Nick Castellanos to score from third as the ball found its way into center field.
After creating slight havoc on the bases, Marsh made a great play in the field a half-inning later. Corey Seager tried to go first to third on a single by Adolis García, but the Phillies’ left fielder played the ball perfectly off the wall and made a strong, accurate throw to Bohm at third. Bohm tagged Seager out on a bang-bang play.
The Phillies took the lead in the bottom of the third as J.T. Realmuto lifted a ball out to left field for his sixth home run of the season, also extending his hitting streak to 12 games.
An inning later, with reliever Jonathan Hernández now pitching, Edmundo Sosa extended the Phillies’ lead to four runs with an opposite-field, three-run home run.
The Rangers got a run back in the fifth. Smith drove in another run with his second single, making it a 6-3 game.
The Phillies would eventually break away in the sixth. Realmuto extended the Phillies’ lead by driving in a pair of runs with a bases-loaded, two-out single to left.
Bohm then added on with what was credited as a double — his 20th of the year — as a shallow fly ball to center fell onto the outfield grass between three Rangers’ players and allowed two more runs to score, making it a 10-3 game.
According to the Phillies, Realmuto’s 12-game hitting streak ties his career-high. It’s the third time Realmuto has reached the 12-game mark with a hitting streak, with the last one spanning June 18 to July 5, 2018. It’s the longest hitting streak of his Phillies career and the longest by a Phillies catcher since Chris Coste’s 12-game hitting streak from July 8 to Aug. 3, 2006.
After Smith’s fifth-inning single, Rob Thomson pulled Taijuan Walker in favor of Matt Strahm. The lefty reliever got out of a runners-on-the-corners-with-two-outs jam by getting Jonah Heim to line out to center. Walker’s final line included 4 2/3 innings, six hits, three earned runs, four walks and five strikeouts. The right-hander’s ERA through five starts is 5.06.
Strahm remained in the game, pitching a scoreless sixth inning to bring his overall scoreless streak to 20 1/3 innings. According to the Phillies, Strahm is the first Phillie in the Modern Era to have a 20-game span in which they allowed no runs, struck out at least 29 batters and issued two or fewer walks. Strahm is also just the sixth major league pitcher to accomplish such a feat, joining Sean Doolittle, Koji Uehara, Craig Kimbrel, Aroldis Chapman and Robb Nen.
Per the Phillies, Bohm is the fifth Phillie to record 20 or more doubles in their first 49 games of the season, joining Chase Utley (twice), Jayson Werth, Lenny Dykstra and Virgil Davis. Tonight’s game also marks the first time in Bohm’s career that he has driven in multiple runs in three straight games.
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