Normally, Zack Wheeler’s 10 K’s would be enough to reel in a pesky Marlins team. On Tuesday night though, the offense came up HUGE with a 7-run 8th inning that had South Philadelphia shaking.
J.T. Realmuto was out of the Phillies' starting lineup for a third straight game Wednesday night with a bone bruise at the base of his left hand, near the wrist.
The All-Star catcher believes he can avoid a trip to the 10-day injured list.
"It was definitely something we were talking about the last two days, but we made the decision on Monday that it was close enough to being ready that I didn't need to go on the IL," Realmuto said. "The swelling is down quite a bit from where it was. It's in a lot better shape than it was three days ago. We've been treating it as much as we can. Hopefully within the next day or two, it will be quite a bit better."
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SIGN UP HERE Though he remained on the active roster, Realmuto probably was not available off the bench Wednesday night. That left manager Joe Girardi with just three healthy players on his bench.
"I probably could (swing a bat), just not effectively so they're trying to not let me do anything active for a couple of days to try to get that extra fluid out of there," Realmuto said.
Realmuto initially suffered the injury trying to block a wild pitch April 29 in St. Louis. The ball bounced in the dirt and struck him on the bone at the base of his left hand, beneath the heel of his catcher's mitt. Realmuto played through the issue for a couple of weeks before it flared up over the weekend and he had to leave Saturday's game against Toronto.
Girardi also believes Realmuto can avoid time on the IL.
MLB
"Hopefully we'll have him as the starter either (Thursday or Friday)," Girardi said. "But every day you come in, you're just not sure. Bone bruises can be tricky. But we feel that he's making progress and hopefully it's in the next day or two.
"But our minds could change, right? I mean, that's the great thing about this is we have the option to change our minds. We're not going to play him if we think it's going to continue to linger on."
Andrew Knapp got the start behind the plate Wednesday night. Rafael Marchan is the backup catcher.
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