PHILADELPHIA — Otto Kemp wandered alone for about 20 minutes in his first trip to Citizens Bank Park — “people were (like) what is this guy doing in this place?” — when he spotted Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto. Hours before Realmuto would score the winning run in an extra-innings comeback — a run set up in large part by Kemp’s bunt single in the two-run rally — he found the rookie and showed him the way to the clubhouse.
“I kind of walked with him and let him take me,” Kemp said, laughing. “Just trying to enjoy it. Get the lay of the land. Every clubhouse is different. Enjoy the day. Enjoy the moment.”
Kemp’s improbable rise from undrafted Division II prospect out of Point Loma Nazarene University in California to signing a free-agent minor league deal with the Phillies in 2022 through four minor league stops finally brought him for the first time to Citizens Bank Park.
Not as a fan such as reliever Orion Kerkering, who had to scrounge for upper deck tickets as a prospect to watch the 2022 World Series. Or even former Phillies pitcher Tyler Phillips, who practically grew up at the ballpark as a diehard fan of the team.
Kemp saved his first trip to the ballpark for when he finally made the major leagues.
“I just tried to keep it special,” he said. “I just tried to keep it something that I get to do on the first day I get to the big leagues. It was kind of just a little bit of motivation to keep me pushing and get to this point.”
The 25-year-old Kemp’s push took him first to Pittsburgh when he was called up from Triple-A Lehigh Valley with slugger Bryce Harper on the injured list. Kemp made his third straight start, this one against the Chicago Cubs, and he finished 3 for 5 with an error, his first career hit and run scored.
Kemp said he hadn’t bunted since he played collegiate summer baseball for the St. Cloud Rox in 2021.
“I popped it up straight to the catcher,” he said with a laugh.
The seemingly lost art in baseball came right back to Kemp. It certainly helped that he told the Phillies coaching staff that, yes, he could in fact bunt.
Realmuto made it 3-all when he drove in the automatic runner with a single off Cubs reliever Daniel Palencia.
The Phillies then got two straight bunt singles, the first from Bryson Stott — a late-inning replacement after he was benched amid a 2-for-24 slump —and then from Kemp, who had the third of his first three big league hits in the game to set up the clutch swing from Brandon Marsh.
Marsh — batting just .228 on the season — delivered a 381-foot single to center that scored Realmuto for the 4-3 victory and snapped the Phillies’ five game losing streak. Marsh, a fan favorite with his stringy hair and ZZ Top-esque beard, said it was the first walk-off winner of his career at any level of baseball.
Kemp singled in the fifth for his first hit — he said he would frame the baseball — and scurried to third on Cubs starter Matthew Boyd’s errant pickoff attempt. Kemp scored on Weston Wilson’s RBI single for a 2-1 lead.
Kemp’s surprise call-up at around 11 p.m. in Charlotte, North Carolina, where the Iron Pigs played, turned into a whirlwind trip for him and his family and friends. Kemp had an early morning flight to Pittsburgh while his wife and dog drove from North Carolina and his parents scrambled to find a red eye from California and made it to the game just in time.
Kemp had his wife, his dad, three friends and his Point Loma college baseball coach Justin James and his family and friends at the game for the home debut.
“It’s cool to execute that bunt and get it down and thank him for raising me in a West Coast baseball program,” Kemp said. “He’s stoked. He’s just so fired up. Just to see me in that moment and out on that field, it’s cool for him to see one of his products and how he helped me get to this point.”
Phillies manager Rob Thomson said Kemp could play first base and even the outfield the longer he stays in the majors. Kemp played all over the field this season at Triple-A, with 33 starts at third base, 17 combined starts at second and first base and seven starts in the outfield. It was all enough to impress Thomson and the Phillies’ front office.
“He’s looked comfortable. He’s got great composure,” Thomson said. “I really like the way he goes about his business.”
Kemp, a non-roster invitee to spring training this season, was slashing .313/.416/.594 with a 1.010 OPS, 49 runs, 14 home runs and 55 RBIs in 58 games for the Iron Pigs.
Going from unwanted in the draft to undeniable on the way to the majors came into focus over the last two seasons.
“Double-A was when it really clicked,” Kemp said. “Like this is when it can become a real possibility.”
As his new Phillies teammates bathed him in sports drinks and water to celebrate his three hits and the win, he soaked in the moment and how that possibility had indeed turned into a reality.
“I’ll have that Gatorade bath any day,” he said.
