Nick Castellanos’ day at the park on Sunday started the way it almost always does.
On most days well before many of his teammates are out of the clubhouse and on field, Castellanos is hitting in the batting cage outside with assistant hitting coach Rafael Peña. A staple of Castellanos’ hitting routine is underhand toss. It allows him to perfect the art of driving the ball on a line using his lower half. His 11-year-old son Liam, who also grabbed a bat and took some swings, was by his side.
His day ended with a familiar face waiting for him. With two on, two out and two strikes, Castellanos delivered a series-tying win for Phillies with a walk-off hit on a hanging slider driven to left field. After his teammates mobbed him in shallow right field, Castellanos ran straight to the backstop to celebrate with Liam. The older Castellanos tapped Liam’s chest, smiled and yelled, “Let’s go.”
As Castellanos ran, a flock of cameras followed to capture the wholesome moment that will stay with both father and son for a lifetime.
“When I’m old and nobody cares about me as a baseball player anymore, we’re going to be at home and remember and look back at that,” Castellanos said.
Maybe in old age, Castellanos could look back at the events leading up to those precious seconds and laugh.
Through five innings, Citizens Bank Park was tense. The Phillies had scored only two runs through 14 innings in the National League Division Series against the New York Mets. They needed a break through moment to get the crowd back on their side.
Annoyed by the Phillies’ hitters inability to stop chasing, the Red October crowd in Game 2 resorted to negative reinforcement.
Mets starter Luis Severino attacked Castellanos in his fourth inning at-bat with his kryptonite, sliders low and outside. He fell quickly behind 0-2. The crowd booed after each big swing and a miss. Severino came back with another breaking pitch outside that he laid off for a ball. The crowd cheered sarcastically and the Phillies right fielder shook his head and muttered a curse word directed at the fans mocking him.
“I had a lot of thoughts going in my head,” Castellanos said.
Castellanos then chased another sweeper outside of the zone to ground out to shortstop.
A moment like that could make a player crumble, but not Castellanos.
This is the same guy who began the season with a .489 OPS through his first 35 games. Over his next 127 games, he batted .273 with an .811 OPS and was the Phillies’ most consistent player, starting all 162 games and never again falling into a hopeless slump. He became the hitter the Phillies wanted him to be.
And over the last two years, he has carried this Phillies team to important victories in the NLDS. His two home runs against Spencer Strider in Game 4 against the Braves sealed a thrilling upset and his three hits on Sunday, including the aforementioned walk-off single, may have saved the season.
The comeback started in the sixth. Severino cruised through the first five innings with his pitch count at 64. With the Mets up 3-0 and short on trustworthy options in the bullpen, Mets manager Carlos Mendoza tempted fate and brought Severino back with the top of the order due up. The plan almost worked, but Trea Turner was able to reach with two outs on a single on a sweeper that caught the middle of the plate.
“When those mistakes are there, it’s kind of the difference,” Turner said.
The Phillies just had to be ready to pounce on another one and they had the perfect guy up at the plate. With a 2-2 count, Severino tried to get Bryce Harper to miss on a fastball outside, but it came in and he crushed it to the batter’s eye in center to make it 3-2. Exhale.
“Continue to pass the baton,” Harper said. “That’s the biggest thing, understanding that you can’t get it all in one swing.”
It took only two swings to tie the game. A couple pitches later with Castellanos up at the plate and Citizens Bank Park reinvigorated, Severino gifted the Phillies another mistake. This time it was a hanging sweeper and Castellanos crushed it to left field.
Embed from Getty ImagesIt was his seventh career postseason home run and the first time the Phillies hit back-to-back home runs in the postseason since Castellanos and Marsh did it in Game 3 of the 2023 NLDS.
Castellanos raced around the bases and greeted his fired up teammates in the dugout.
The Phillies found the energy they were looking for and it allowed them to lock in and stay in the battle with the resilient Mets. New York retook the lead an inning later with a Brandon Nimmo solo home run only for the Phillies to score three in the bottom of the eighth on a two-run triple by Bryson Stott and fielder’s choice by J.T. Realmuto. Castellanos singled on a high fastball from tired closer Edwin Diaz and ran first to third to give the Phillies their first lead of the game on the Stott triple.
“He better have scored,” Harper said. “Man. I’m glad he did.”
After a back breaking two-run blast from Mark Vientos in the top of the ninth off of Matt Strahm to tie the game, the Phillies needed Castellanos again. With Jeff Hoffman in the game to keep it tied, Pete Alonso hit a shallow fly ball to right field to Castellanos’ left. The trajectory of the ball called for Castellanos to make his signature sliding grab that has saved the Phillies multiple times in the postseason.
With two outs in the bottom of the ninth and the Phillies facing right-handed starter turned reliever Tylor Megill with the game tied, Turner and Harper worked a pair of walks to give Castellanos a chance to end the game with a base hit.
He began the at-bat swinging and missing at a slider just off the plate. Megill came back inside with a sinker that he fouled off to get ahead of Castellanos 0-2. The Mets righty came back with another slider, this one in the dirt for a ball. Perhaps a less focused Castellanos swings out of desperation and walks back to the dugout hearing boos. But he told himself he wasn’t going to swing until he recognized the pitch out of Megill’s hand.
“I was just happy that I was able to recognize and lay off,” Castellanos said.
The next pitch was in his sweet spot, a low and inside hanging slider that he was able to easily drive to left for the game winner. It was the first time the Phillies have walked off an opponent in the postseason since Jimmy Rollins doubled in Game 4 of the 2009 NLCS.
“Unselfish baseball is the most fun baseball you can play,” Castellanos said.
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