The Strangest Phillies Home Run You'll Ever See

PHILADELPHIA, PA — The Phillies have had a rocky start to the COVID carnival of cardboard cut-outs and quarantines that is Major League Baseball in 2020. But they've also had their share of bad luck.

Some of that ineffable karmic magic that so often decisively swings the pendulum of ball games came tolling back their way on Tuesday night, in their matchup against the defending World Series champion Washington Nationals.

It came in the top of the third inning. Phillies all-world catcher J.T. Realmuto stepped up to the plate with two runners on and a 1-1 count and drove an inside fastball deep to the opposite field.

As far as Realmuto bombs go, it wasn't the realest, and it lacked the sheer muto that defines so many of the hits of one of the hardest hitting hitters in the game. And yet still, the comparatively softly hit ball sent Nationals right fielder Adam Eaton tearing back and back to the edge of the warning track, where:

Eaton misplayed the ball, his glove slapping the top of the padded wall just inches from where the ball hit the inside of the top of the fence. Then, as Eaton recovered from his jump, and before the eyes of a stable of lost-looking National relief pitchers, the ball bounced straight up in the air and dropped down on the other side of the fence.

Eaton stood there staring though the chain-link for a moment in disbelief, watching the ball bouncing feet away, officially, and finally, out of the park.

The empty bleachers at Nationals Park were blue indeed in silent thrall.

For any Philadelphia sports fan haunted by Kawhi Leonard, it might've been hard not to see the ghost of the ex-Raptor superstar fading away on one foot somewhere near the right field line.

For whatever ample credit is owed to Realmuto, it served as a reminder that even the best hitter's swing can be no more than a nudge of a piece of a chessboard, an offering submitted to the grandmasters physics and fate.

Eaton later hit a home run himself to almost the exact same spot in right field.

The Phillies won, 8-3.