Phillies maul Marlins with 22-hit barrage, but J.T. Realmuto leaves with bruised left knee

MIAMI — With the magic number dwindling on their first division title since 2011, there will be times during these next three weeks when the Phillies want to pack the roster in bubble wrap and ship it to October.

Take, for instance, Friday night.

Leading by seven runs — a touchdown, if you will, in honor of the Eagles’ opener — against the worst team in the National League, with Zack Wheeler on cruise control, the Phillies’ best outcome would’ve been to pocket a stress-free victory and head off into the Miami night.

» READ MORE: Handicapping Zack Wheeler's chances to win the NL Cy Young Award

Instead, a 16-2 knee-slapper against the Marlins, in which the Phillies pounded a season-high 22 hits and Wheeler gave up only two, was tempered by a foul ball off the left knee that knocked J.T. Realmuto out of the game.

The star catcher left with a bruise, according to the Phillies, and was expected to undergo further evaluation. Maybe he will miss only a game or two. (Garrett Stubbs was scheduled to catch Saturday anyway, manager Rob Thomson said.) A week from now, maybe nobody — other than Realmuto, of course — will remember that it even happened.

But it underscored the importance of staying healthy while also trying to close the deal on the NL East crown and the best record/top seed in the National League with 21 games remaining on the schedule. After left fielder Austin Hays (kidney infection) and third baseman Alec Bohm (strained left hand) were sidelined this week, the Phillies don’t want to keep adding to the injured-list population.

“The biggest goal in the next 25 days or so is to just keep everybody healthy,” Trea Turner said after the Phillies’ sixth consecutive win — and their 11th in the last 13 games. “Sometimes you can’t avoid stuff like that, and it’s not always good to think like that. But I think it’s kind of in the back of our minds. You want to get through this month healthy and have a good shot at the postseason.

“Hopefully [Realmuto’s] good, and we get good news tomorrow that he feels better. Hopefully that’s all taken care of.”

That stark reminder notwithstanding, the Phillies’ 85th win of the season was an absolute mauling. It also reduced their magic number to 14, meaning they can clinch the division with a combination of that many victories and/or losses by the second-place Braves.

» READ MORE: Phillies put Alec Bohm on the injured list. He will be sidelined through the end of next week -- and maybe beyond.

Less than two hours before the game, the Marlins scratched starter Edward Cabrera with migraine-like symptoms. He might as well have had the Phillies Flu. Facing lefty Austin Kitchen, the Phillies scored three runs in the first inning, four in the second, three in the fifth, and four in the sixth.

In lieu of an MLB mercy rule, the Marlins put outfielder David Hensley on the mound for both the eighth and ninth innings.

The Phillies served every flavor of offense. They wore out the left side of the infield in the first inning and slayed Kitchen with singles — four, to be exact, including opposite-field RBI hits from Bryce Harper and Bryson Stott.

But the second inning was an extra-base-fest, capped by Turner’s two-run homer. And in the sixth, Kyle Schwarber clobbered his 33rd homer of the season (fifth in the last four games), a 434-footer that followed back-to-back-to-back doubles by Brandon Marsh, Kody Clemens, and Johan Rojas.

Schwarber, Turner, and Harper finished 8-for-15 with eight RBIs at the top of the order. At the bottom, Clemens and Rojas notched three hits apiece (Rojas had three doubles). Every starter had at least one hit; all but Nick Castellanos and Marsh drove in at least one run.

“That’s what makes us really good,” Turner said of the balanced lineup. “Kody’s had some great at-bats; Ro hit the ball really well today. Not only are they hitting the ball well, they’re driving the ball to all fields, scoring runs, kind of doing a little bit of everything.”

» READ MORE: Nick Castellanos’ chase for 162 games goes beyond endurance. It’s a testament to the Phillies’ faith in him.

And if the 33-game canyon in the standings between the Phillies and Marlins wasn’t evident enough, it seemed for a while like Wheeler might not allow a hit. He set down the first nine batters on 40 pitches, striking out four. He didn’t allow a trace of hard contact, barely even breaking a sweat.

The Marlins didn’t get their first baserunner until Connor Norby’s single off Clemens’ glove at third base with one out in the fourth inning. They scored only because Otto Lopez’s grounder up the middle hit second base and kicked into shallow left field.

Otherwise, Wheeler dominated. He could have gone back out for the seventh inning, but given the lopsided score, Thomson didn’t see the point. In his final push for the Cy Young Award that eluded him in 2021, Wheeler racked up his 14th victory and lowered his ERA and league-leading WHIP (walks/hits per inning pitched) to 2.59 and 0.96, respectively.

“This time of year, throughout the year, sometimes you need those type of [shorter] starts,” said Wheeler, who threw only 84 pitches. “It was ultimately Rob’s call, and he made it. I was fine with it.”

The final few innings turned into a spring-training game, with the Phillies emptying the bench. Edmundo Sosa, Weston Wilson, and newly recalled Cal Stevenson and Buddy Kennedy got into the game in place of Turner, Harper, Castellanos, and Marsh. Nick Nelson pitched the final two innings and unveiled his new knuckleball.

But Stubbs entered much earlier, taking over for Realmuto in the fourth inning. Realmuto, who singled in the first and second innings and drove in two runs, fouled the ball off his knee in the second. He caught Wheeler for two more innings before finally exiting.

» READ MORE: Phillies place Austin Hays on the 10-day injured list with a kidney infection

Maybe it’s nothing. If only the Phillies could break out the bubble wrap anyway.