PHOENIX ― Philadelphia Phillies All-Star catcher JT Realmuto knew he entered the record book Monday night, but as much as he wanted to celebrate the feat, he never even asked for the historic baseball at Chase Field.
He became the first Phillies player since David Bell in 2004 to hit for the cycle, only the 17th catcher in baseball history to accomplish the rarity, even joining Hall of Famer Lou Gehrig in a piece of baseball trivia, but wound up answering more questions about the third-inning benches-clearing incident with the Arizona Diamondbacks than the cycle.
“There was a lot going on,” Realmuto said after the Phillies’ 9-8 defeat to the Diamondbacks. “Bittersweet.”
Realmuto, who joined Gehrig as the only players in baseball history to homer in an All-Star game, hit an inside-the-park homer in the postseason and hit for the cycle, according to OptaStats, says he started thinking about the possibility of a cycle after his first two at-bats. He homered in the second inning, tripled in the third inning. He singled in the fifth inning, and after walking in the seventh, lined a double off the left-center-field wall in the ninth inning.
He pulled into second base, threw his arms up into the air, with two thumbs-up to his cheering teammates, who did ask the umpiring crew for the baseball.
History.
“It kind of sucks honesty, obviously doing it is a cool accomplishment,” Realmuto said, “but it’s tough because we lost.”
The cycle was overshadowed by the third-inning dust-up when Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo charged towards home-plate umpire Vic Carapazza after rookie sensation Corbin Carroll was hit for the second time by an inside pitch thrown by Phillies starter Matt Strahm. Lovullo thought it was intentional, and Realmuto argued on Strahm’s behalf that he was simply trying to keep the ball inside.
“No way where we try to hit him and put one of the fastest guys in baseball on base,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “That’s not me. That’s not our club.”
Realmuto tried to argue the same point when Lovullo appeared to snap at Realmuto, turned around, and then said something again. The Phillies were livid that Lovullo confronted Realmuto.
“It looked a lot worse on video than it actually was,” Realmuto said. “He wasn’t challenging me at all. He was backing his player. At one point, he was saying, ‘I will do the same thing for you. If you’re on my team, I back you up. …’
“It was not on purpose. We’re trying to get him out. That’s all that’s happening here. We have no history with him. There’s no reason for us to throw at him. We’re trying to win a baseball game. It’s unfortunate he got hit the first time, but it wasn’t going to change how we pitched him the second time.”
Lovullo was ejected, warnings were issued, and Lovullo could face a one-game suspension for confronting an opposing player.
“I have the utmost respect for JT Realmuto,” Lovullo said. “He’s a tremendous catcher. He’s a tremendous player in this league. I know what it looked like down from my level. This was me protecting our player and him protecting his pitcher. It was just a disagreement.
“I don’t want to talk about it. I knew going out there I had no right to go out there.”
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The benches cleared during the argument, D-backs infielder Josh Rojas was ejected, Strahm was livid there were warnings, and the next thing anyone knew, the D-backs turned a 5-1 deficit into a 9-5 lead.
“It definitely affected the rest of Strahm’s outing,” Realmuto said, “because you don’t want to hit anybody. You don’t want Strahm getting tossed, and getting suspended. So, he had to pitch a little differently.”
Who knows if there will be any lingering bitterness from the incident, but for Realmuto, even with a loss, it’s a night he’ll forever cherish, and one day he will celebrate with his teammates.
“Obviously it’s a great feat for him,” Strahm said. “Too bad we couldn’t pull out a win for a little better celebration for him. But what he does, I tip my cap to him. He’s an unbelievable gamer. I don’t know if anyone catches as many [games] as that dude does, and do what he does in the box, and even on the basepaths, he’s basically a freak athlete.”
And now, with a piece of Phillies’ history.
Follow Bob Nightengale on Twitter @Bnightengale.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: JT Realmuto hits for cycle, confronted by Torey Lovullo