Phillies news and rumors 6/12: Bryson Stott, cricket player? Nick Castellanos can see it
Bryson Stott could be hitting .400 or mired in the worst slump of his life and it seems like he’ll always work a good at-bat.
He did a lot of that on Sunday, playing an instrumental role in the Phillies’ series-clinching victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers. The line — 2-for-3 with a triple, two RBIs, two runs and a walk — speaks for itself, but how he did it was particularly Stott-ish.
His first-inning strikeout came on eight pitches and after fouling off four two-strike offerings from Caleb Ferguson. His two-out, two-run single in the third was a full-count bloop into shallow left-center. He came back from down 1-2 to draw a leadoff walk in the sixth. And his seventh-inning triple came in an 0-2 count.
After the game, Nick Castellanos — who homered and singled on Sunday and always has a funny way of doling out compliments — told reporters that as good as Stott is at this baseball thing, perhaps he would’ve been even better suited choosing a sport with a different type of bat.
“It’s impressive,” Castellanos said of Stott’s ability to work counts. “Especially when he gets to two strikes. Just foul ball, foul ball, foul ball. You know, I tell him on a, not a daily basis, but routinely, that he should’ve been a cricket player.”
Stott entered Sunday ranked 11th in the National League with 4.26 pitches seen per plate appearances, according to the Washington Post. He saw 23 more in four plate appearances on Sunday, reaching base thrice despite seeing four two-strike counts.
He’s tough to put away. His 48 strikeouts is tied for 54th-most in the NL, despite his 274 plate appearances ranking fifth.
That 274 number is tied with Castellanos, whose 67 strikeouts rank 13th. And though Castellanos has certainly been tough to put away this year as well, he, for one, would still like to know Stott’s secret.
“I don’t know if he [fouls pitches off] intentionally, but he definitely doesn’t cheat to anything,” Castellanos said of Stott. “And his bat gets in the zone so deep that he’s able to foul off a lot of fastballs. If he’s doing it on purpose, then he’s got to teach me how he does it.”
Must Read (Or Watch) Phillies Content
- The latest High Hopes Podcast finally used the b-word. (“Back.”) Give it a listen!
- Ha, sorry, had to. Here’s the real High Hopes link. It’s a good one. (But check out our pod, too, with MLB.com‘s Todd Zolecki.)
- Taijuan Walker begged to stay in Sunday’s game. Three times, actually, according to Corey Seidman of NBC Sports Philadelphia.
- The daycare is now introducing various types of fruit into its postgame shower routine, and on Sunday, they also soiled a gift for Mookie Betts.
Former Phillies Nation
- He may be in a different part of the state, but everyone in Philadelphia still loves Cutch, who reached an impressive milestone on Sunday.
Of those 2,000 hits, 218 came with the Phillies from 2019-2021. That’s his second-most with any team, trailing only the (obviously) Pirates.
Phillies Nation’s Destiny Lugardo contributed to this report.
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