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Bryce Harper silences Nationals fans; Phillies ponder how hard to push J.T. Realmuto | Extra Innings

At a time when more teams are favoring close to a 50-50 timeshare between their catchers, the Phillies intend to lean as heavily as possible on Realmuto.

Nationals fans in right field Tuesday night wore T-shirts that reflected their feelings about Bryce Harper in his first game back in Washington since signing a 13-year, $330 million contract with the Phillies.
Nationals fans in right field Tuesday night wore T-shirts that reflected their feelings about Bryce Harper in his first game back in Washington since signing a 13-year, $330 million contract with the Phillies.Read moreYONG KIM / Staff Photographer

To boo, or not to boo? That was the question. And the answer, delivered loudly and clearly last night in Washington by the announced crowd of 35,920: Booooooo!

At least until Bryce Harper and the undefeated Phillies sent all the Nationals fans home.

Harper got booed before the game when his name was announced with the Phillies lineup. He got booed when highlights from his seven seasons in D.C. played on the scoreboard. He got booed even more when he walked to the plate in the first inning.

So, now we know. Once the face of the Nationals, Harper is now a villain. Swell. Public sentiment, fueled by a since-deleted tweet from Washington mayor Muriel Bowser, seemed to be trending in that direction, anyway. But Harper turned Nats fans’ boos into Phillies fans’ cheers by going 3-for-5 with a double, a second-deck homer, and an epic bat flip in an 8-2 giggler in the first of 19 meetings with the Nationals this season.

The Phillies are 4-0 for the first time since 1915, and Aaron Nola will start today’s series finale. Amid a start like that, Harper will happily tolerate being labeled a traitor, even in the city where he once thought he would spend his entire career.

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— Scott Lauber (extrainnings@philly.com)

Catch-22: How much can J.T. Realmuto play behind the plate?

After a 41-minute rain delay at the start and 3 hours and 31 minutes of playing time, last night’s game didn’t end until 11:15 p.m., less than 14 hours before today’s game is slated to begin.

Chances are, then, that Andrew Knapp will make his first start of the season.

Then again ...

Ordinarily, a day game after a night game is the perfect opportunity for a backup catcher to get some playing time. But manager Gabe Kapler has been clear that the Phillies’ catching situation isn’t ordinary. At a time when more teams are favoring close to a 50-50 timeshare between their catchers, the Phillies intend to lean as heavily as possible on J.T. Realmuto.

“If he says, ‘I’m good to go,’ and our strength and conditioning staff, our training staff feels that he’s good to go, J.T. is going to take down the majority of the starts," Kapler said last weekend. “Those are conversations that are going to be had with J.T. and the training staff.”

Darren Daulton holds the single-season Phillies record for most games started by a catcher (143 in 1993). Bob Boone started 141 games behind the plate in 1973 and 142 the following season. Mike Lieberthal made 138 starts in 1999, and started at least 120 games three other times.

But it’s becoming increasingly rare for catchers to carry such a heavy load. Last season, only 11 catchers started at least 100 games, with the Cubs’ Wilson Contreras leading the majors with 123. Within the National League East, the Braves (Tyler Flowers/Brian McCann) and Nationals (Yan Gomes/Kurt Suzuki) believe strongly in the 50-50 timeshare model.

The Phillies gave up top prospect Sixto Sanchez and young catcher Jorge Alfaro in a pre-spring-training trade for Realmuto and never hid the fact that they want the 28-year-old to be a more traditional lead dog. After all, he has been among the most durable backstops in baseball, averaging 119 starts over the past four seasons with the Marlins.

But it will be a balancing act for Kapler to figure out how hard he can ride Realmuto while still keeping him productive at the plate.

“For me, I want to catch 162, but I know that’s probably not going to happen,” Realmuto said. “I trust Gabe. We’ll have conversations about that, and we’ll see how I feel. For me, it’s just about staying healthy and staying strong. It’s a long season. It’s grueling, especially behind the plate. There’s really not a magic number. You just go by how you feel. I trust him to make the right decisions.”

The rundown

From start to finish, Harper’s first game back in D.C. was tremendous baseball theater. Matt Breen sets the scene here.

Nats fans who reacted negatively to Harper last night might want to chew on the kicker at the end of Bob Brookover’s column: Keep this up for the next 13 years and the Nationals’ fans are sure to hate Bryce Harper forever.

Four games, one set lineup for manager Gabe Kapler, who says he can focus more on other things without having to worry about which batting order is best for the Phillies.

Even before last night, columnist David Murphy was pondering the potential of the Phillies offense to be special, including this: Maikel Franco might finally be fulfilling an early-career comparison to Edwin Encarnacion.

A look at Harper’s night in a social media roundup compiled here by E.J. Smith.

Harper’s big night wasn’t even close to the worst thing to happen to the Nationals, who lost shortstop Trea Turner for an undetermined amount of time because of a fractured right index finger suffered on a bunt attempt.

Important dates

Today: Aaron Nola starts finale of brief two-game series in D.C., 1:05 p.m.

Tomorrow: Off day for the Phillies; Extra Innings never takes a weekday off.

Friday: Phillies return home to open a three-game series vs. Twins, 7:05 p.m.

Saturday: Jake Arrieta faces Twins for first time since 2015, 2:05 p.m.

Sunday: Zach Eflin starts series finale vs. Minnesota, 1:05 p.m.

Stat of the day

Nice start for Harper with the Phillies, huh? It’s also fairly predictable.

Since making his major-league debut in 2012, Harper has been baseball’s best hitter in the first month of the season. With a career 1.073 OPS in March/April games, he has outpaced fellow fast starters Eric Thames (1.022) and Mike Trout (.969) by a wide margin. Harper also leads all players since 2012 with 44 homers in March/April, ahead of Nelson Cruz and Ryan Braun (both 42).

How does Harper’s start — 6-for-14 (.429), three homers, five RBI, four walks, 1.770 OPS — compare to previous marquee Phillies free agents?

Through four games in 1979, Pete Rose was also 6-for-14, although he had two doubles, two walks and a 1.071 OPS. In 2003, Jim Thome went 8-for-15 (.533) with two doubles, one triple, three walks and a 1.411 OPS through four games. He didn’t hit his first home run until his eighth game, when he belted two in a victory over the Braves.

From the mailbag

Send questions by email or on Twitter @ScottLauber.

Answer: Yo, Vin. Nice avatar. Thanks for the question. I’m assuming you were wondering why the Phillies elected to start Zach Eflin rather than Nola in the series opener in D.C. Nola pitched on opening day last Thursday and could have started last night on four days’ rest. As good as he was in all situations last season, he was better with five days’ rest (1.83 ERA in 17 starts) than he was with four (2.71 ERA in 13 starts).

That disparity is even more pronounced over his career (4.73 ERA in 41 starts on five days’ rest compared to 2.29 ERA in 43 starts on four days’ rest). Needless to say, the Phillies will take advantage of chances to give Nola extra rest whenever possible during the season.

Oh, and Eflin wound up doing pretty well: nine strikeouts in five scoreless innings.