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Catchers throughout baseball will have nightmares about this.
During the ninth inning of Wednesday’s game against the Blue Jays, Phillies’ catcher J.T. Realmuto was hit by a 94-mph foul ball from Bo Bichette right in the groin. The impact caused Realmuto to drop to the ground in pain.
Realmuto eventually struggled to his feet and walked it off, thought he was removed from the game and replaced by backup Rafael Marchan.
Umpire Paul Clemons attempted to give Realmuto as much time as possible, as he stood up and slowly tossed the ball back to pitcher Jordan Romano.
This unfortunate incident occurred at the start of the bottom of the ninth inning. Despite the injury, Romano, the pitcher, managed to strike out Bichette after the game resumed. However, this was before the Blue Jays went on to score the winning run.
Phillies manager Rob Thomson said after the game that Realmuto was being checked on by doctors.
“It’s a pretty good one,” Thomson said, per the Associated Press. “He said he’s had worse, but we’ll see. We’ll check him out tomorrow.”
The Phillies’ starting pitcher Wednesday, highly touted prospect Mick Abel, felt for his battery mate.
“That’s something you never want to see,” Abel said. “I don’t really know how it feels, but I can imagine it’s extremely painful.”
Romano, who suffered the loss after he gave up a game-ending hit to Alejandro Kirk, said Realmuto’s reaction showed how much it must’ve hurt.
“J.T. is a tough guy,” Romano said. “Seeing him go down like that, obviously, it had to hurt pretty good. Just hope he’s all right.”
Realmuto has been struggling this season, hitting just .226, the worst mark of his MLB career. He went 1-for-3 Wednesday night.
The Phillies (37-24) and Blue Jays finish their three-game set Thursday afternoon and Philadelphia is 1 1/2 games behind the Mets in the NL East.