![\"Miami](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/miami-marlins-v-philadelphia-phillies-philadelphia-pennsylvania-august-17-j-t-realmuto.jpg\")
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PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA – AUGUST 17: J.T. Realmuto #10 of the Philadelphia Phillies celebrates with teammates in the dugout after Kyle Schwarber hit a sacrifice fly to score a run in the sixth inning against the Miami Marlins at Citizens Bank Park on August 17, 2026 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Heather Barry\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
The Philadelphia Phillies<\/a> are one of the hottest teams in MLB right now. They have won eight of their last 10 games, and will open up a new series this week with the *also surging* St. Louis Cardinals<\/a> in a series with NL Wild Card implications.<\/p>\n Philadelphia has cut back catcher JT Realmuto\u2019s playing time lately, and before the series opener against the Cardinals<\/a>, manager Don Mattingly has made a notable Realmuto decision.<\/p>\n More MLB on Heavy: St. Louis Cardinals Announce Jordan Walker Change Before Phillies Game<\/a><\/p>\n JT Realmuto Back in Phillies Lineup for Cardinals Series Opener GettyPHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA \u2013 AUGUST 18: Brooks Raley<\/a> #30 and J.T. Realmuto<\/a> #10 of the Philadelphia Phillies celebrate a 6-4 win against the Miami Marlins<\/a> for a 6-4 win at Citizens Bank Park on August 18, 2026 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Heather Barry\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n JT Realmuto was not in the Phillies batting order on Wednesday against the Miami Marlins.<\/p>\n On Friday, JT Realmuto is batting eighth and is behind the plate. As far as other changes in the Phillies batting order, their lineup looks very similar to Wednesday\u2019s contest.<\/p>\n In fact, the first seven batters are all the same as the Phillies\u2019 last game, with the only changes being Realmuto catching in place of Stubbs and Justin Crawford<\/a> batting ninth instead of 8th.<\/p>\n Here is the full batting order, per @UnderdogMLB:<\/a><\/p>\n Phillies 8\/21: \u201cK. Schwarber DH T. Turner SS B. Harper RF L. Arraez 2B A. Bohm 1B B. Stott 3B B. Marsh LF J. Realmuto C J. Crawford CF J. Luzardo SP\u201d<\/p>\n Phillies 8\/21<\/p>\n K. Schwarber DH J. Luzardo SP<\/p>\n More MLB<\/a> on Heavy: Atlanta Braves Quietly Promote 26-Year-Old Player Before Brewers Series<\/a><\/p>\n Looking at JT Realmuto This Season GettyMINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA \u2013 AUGUST 15: J.T. Realmuto #10 of the Philadelphia Phillies celebrates his sacrifice fly to score a run against the Minnesota Twins<\/a> in the second inning at Target Field on August 15, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by David Berding\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n JT Realmuto signed a three-year, $45 million deal to stay with the Philadelphia Phillies this offseason.<\/p>\n However, he has taken a step back offensively in his age-35 season.<\/p>\n Across 316 at-bats this season, Realmuto is batting .215 with eight home runs, 40 RBI, and an OPS of .626.<\/p>\n His career OPS is .765.<\/p>\n There have been a couple of injuries for Realmuto, but he had so many consecutive seasons of being an above-average hitter at the catcher position that it\u2019s hard to say it\u2019s all that surprising that Realmuto has slowed down from an offensive position.<\/p>\n Also, given the nature of how physically challenging catching actually is, he has seen some of his playing time reduced in an attempt to keep him fresh.<\/p>\n More MLB on Heavy: New York Mets Announce Mark Vientos News Before White Sox Series<\/a><\/p>\n \n\t\t\tTJ French<\/a> covers the MLB for Heavy. TJ is a graduate of the University of Georgia. He has 2+ years of writing experience.
![\"Miami](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/miami-marlins-v-philadelphia-phillies-philadelphia-pennsylvania-august-18-brooks-raley.jpg\")
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\nT. Turner SS
\nB. Harper RF
\nL. Arraez 2B
\nA. Bohm 1B
\nB. Stott 3B
\nB. Marsh LF
\nJ. Realmuto C
\nJ. Crawford CF<\/p>\n![\"Philadelphia](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/philadelphia-phillies-v-minnesota-twins-minneapolis-minnesota-august-15-j-t-realmuto.jpg\")
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\nFollow TJ French on X: @tj_french5 More about TJ French<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA – AUGUST 17: J.T. Realmuto #10 of the Philadelphia Phillies celebrates with teammates in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70],"class_list":["post-269749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}