Phillies' Realmuto: I felt 'rushed' in big situations due to pitch clock

Philadelphia Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto felt like a fish out of water playing with the new pitch clock for the first time during the regular season.

"I mean, it was a different feel than it was in spring training," Realmuto said Thursday after his Phillies lost on Opening Day to the Texas Rangers, according to Matt Gelb of The Athletic. "Obviously, in spring training, the outs don't matter as much. Here, there's a plan.

"A million things are going through your head as a catcher and as a pitcher. And you just don't really have time to evaluate things and decide what you want to do. You just have to go.

"It's going to take a little time to adjust to, but obviously, that's not the reason why we lost. They're going through the same thing. But it's definitely different. It was a completely different thing. I have never felt that rushed before in big situations. It was weird."

Realmuto pinpointed a nine-run fourth inning by the Rangers in which ace Aaron Nola got yanked after allowing five earned runs on four hits as an example of how the pitch clock worked against the Phillies.

"As a catcher, your job is to slow down the pitcher," Realmuto said. "And you can't."

Reliever Gregory Soto also surrendered four runs without recording an out in the fourth.

Major League Baseball didn't make any big alterations to the pitch clock after the rule change shaved off the average time of a spring training game by 25 minutes.