J.T. Realmuto ends his cold spell against the Rockies as the Phillies win their sixth straight

DENVER — While the rest of the Phillies offense used the higher elevation at Coors Field and the weakness of the Rockies’ pitching staff to their advantage this series, J.T. Realmuto had mostly missed out on the fun.

That is, until the third inning of Wednesday’s 9-5 win over Colorado.

The Phillies catcher was 0-for-11 entering the inning, and held hitless in the first two games of the series. But Realmuto needed one pitch — a fastball over the middle of the plate — to emphatically end that streak, sending it to right field for an RBI double.

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“I think it’s important when you’re winning games consistently, it’s usually a different guy every night,” said Phillies manager Rob Thomson. “You’ve got one or two guys who are on a heater, but then it’s other guys that are contributing, different guys contributing every night. And that’s what we’re getting.”

From there, the hits kept coming. Realmuto singled in the fifth inning, and then crushed a changeup 418 feet to left field for his fifth homer of the year in the sixth.

Behind 12 total hits, the Phillies secured their 11th series victory, and extended their win streak to six games.

“Just feels like everyone’s kind of hot right now,” said Trea Turner, who went 2-for-5. “Everyone’s swinging it good. ... Even the outs feel like good swings. So there’s a lot of positives on the offensive side.”

Taijuan Walker made his return to the Phillies’ starting rotation after spending the last two weeks in the bullpen. He used 68 pitches over five innings, his most since his last start on May 1. The Phillies had planned to limit him to five innings and/or 75 pitches.

“I knew I was on a pitch count, so I tried to be efficient,” Walker said. “First couple innings, [I] noticed they were hacking and putting the ball in play and swinging early, so I just let them get themselves out. It’s always easy when you have a lead, too.”

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Walker only threw nine splitters. He knew the altitude and thinner air in Denver can inhibit the pitch’s movement, so he instead relied heavily on his cutter. Walker also got the Rockies to chase his slider out of the zone, after tweaking his grip two days ago.

“I felt like it was backing up too much,” Walker said. “I was going out previously, and I was getting beat by it. So I kind of wanted to get more of a sweep and just kind of make sure it’s going left to the righties and more horizontal.”

Walker was charged with three earned runs off six hits, including a solo homer from Nick Martini in the fourth inning. He recorded two strikeouts in the fifth, one off his slider and the other off his cutter.

Rockies starter Carson Palmquist had a tough task for his second-ever major league start, facing a Phillies offense that had recorded 17 hits in each of the first two games of the series. The Phillies didn’t take it easy on the rookie, jumping out to an early lead with two runs in the first inning.

Turner and Bryce Harper went deep on back-to-back pitches in the third inning, before Kyle Schwarber worked a walk and came home on Realmuto’s double. Nick Castellanos also scored on the hit because of an errant throw from Rockies right fielder Mickey Moniak. It was one of three fielding errors charged to Colorado in the game.

Turner is hitting .308 this season and has been scorching hot this month, but still has felt like he’s been missing some power. This series, it’s started to come around. Turner has four extra-base hits in the last three games: Two doubles, a triple, and the home run.

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“I’ve been taking my hits and whatnot, but the last few days, I’ve been better about getting the ball in the air and hitting the gaps,” Turner said.

Phillies reliever Tanner Banks pitched a 1-2-3 sixth. Joe Ross allowed a double in the seventh and a single in the eighth, but each time held the Rockies off the scoreboard.

Carlos Hernández struggled in the ninth. He allowed a leadoff double to Martini that bounced off the 14-foot wall in right-center field and would have been a homer in 23 other ballparks, according to StatCast data. A walk and two singles scored two runs to chip into the Phillies’ lead, but Hernández induced a groundout to end the game.

Weston Wilson was removed from the game in the fourth inning with a migraine. Brandon Marsh replaced him in left field.

“It really wasn’t a headache. It just affected his vision. Migraines affect people differently, so we got him out,” Thomson said. “He’ll be fine [Thursday].”