PHILADELPHIA — It began to get ugly Sunday two batters into the fourth inning, and really, it was a surprise that it took that long.
Nick Castellanos, coming off four solid months of regular season hitting, chased a pitch and missed by about 10 inches or so. By the next pitch, his empty wave reached a foot. That’s about the time the expelling of fan disgust, often a many splendored thing in Philadelphia, came on with a sudden rush.
By the time Castellanos drew the negative response that hearkened back to his days of spring plate ineptitude (he was at .199 as late as May 27), Phillies fans had already cranked up the angst level to 11. If they needed a laugh, the fans soon supplied that, as Mets pitcher Luis Severino bounced a 55-footer to Castellanos, who kept the bat on his shoulders, drawing a loud cheer from the fans for not swinging.
He tapped the next pitch to Francisco Lindor for an out, bringing the fans right back to their wintery bluster of discontent. Ah, Philadelphia during another sports fall. Funny how fast the weather can change down here.
It came with two gusts of wind from Bryce Harper, and yes, from Castellanos, back-to-back home runs in the sixth inning off previously unhittable Severino to tie the game. It came again via a two-run triple by previously unhitting Bryson Stott, who followed a Harper walk and Castellanos single with the liner to the corner in right to give them a 6-4 lead. And because these Miracle Mets II keep refusing to die, it had to happen again in the ninth.
That’s where Castellanos had his most meaningful moment of the night, his walk-off single capping a two-out rally and bringing Trea Turner home with the winning run in a thrilling, 7-6 Phillies victory that turned the winds of discontent into a gush of celebratory relief at Citizens Bank Park.
“I feel great for him,” manager Rob Thomson said of his perfect-attendance player Castellanos. “I mean, he’s been working every day. Comes in early, hits one-on-one on the field. I don’t know how he’s done it and played 162 games because he’s just a workhorse.
“I’m so happy for him because I know that there’s been a lot of talk about chase and this and that. But he can hit. He can hit. That was a big night for him tonight, the home run to tie it up and then the base hit to win it. He’s just been grinding all year.”
After going 1-for-6 to start the series and swinging at the kind of bad pitches which lowlighted his first two months, Castellanos supplied a game-tying home run, single and go-ahead run, then the walk-off hit in the ninth.
“He’s a stud, man,” Harper said of Castellanos. “He continues to fight and to work, and he’s understanding what he needs to do, and he’s swinging at everything.
“No heartbeat, man. He just goes up there and plays his game. He’s been doing it for a long time, in the big leagues, but also youth ball and things like that. But no moment’s too big.”
The Phillies had precious few scoring moments early on. They had gotten a couple of baserunners to third, but both times with two outs, and neither time did they advance beyond there. Severino didn’t have to act like a pitcher in trouble, since the Phils were well on their way to painfully extending a stretch of not putting together consistent at bats into a fourth consecutive playoff game.
It began a year ago, when after scoring 27 runs over the first five games of the NLCS, the Phillies went down in two stunning losses at home to the Arizona Diamondbacks, scoring a total of three runs over those crushing Games 6 and 7.
It continued Saturday, while their ace Zack Wheeler was blowing away the Mets with a one-hit shutout through seven innings. Yet they could only muster a one-run lead … until the bullpen helped blow it all up into a 6-2 Mets win.
Until Harper and Castellanos ripped their sixth-inning homers Sunday, the Phillies were beginning to specialize in hitting only when it didn’t count. Until then they were 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position in this series, which had all the earmarks of a short one heading for an ending in New York.
But Harper and Castellanos weren’t listening to the script.
“I was just kind of frustrated,” Castellanos said, “so I guess I locked in more. … It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.”
So amid a sudden four-inning charge in which they scored seven needed runs, the Phillies not only reversed an early three-run deficit but also finally put down a Mets team that seemed (and might still seem) destined to finish the scintillating run they’ve been on over the last several weeks.
“Obviously going into New York at 1-1 is a lot better than 0-2,” Castellanos said. “That being said, the series is far from over. They are a really good team over there and they are playing together and they are playing as a unit.
“It’s going to be challenging but we’re looking forward to it.”
Contact Rob Parent at [email protected]
