PHILADELPHIA — When it all seemed hopeless, Nick Castellanos took one foot out of the batter’s box and looked toward first base. It was 15 minutes past 5 p.m. and the sun wasn’t setting. Not yet. But that familiar darkness had overcome Citizens Bank Park.
He heard it. Everyone did. “I think you’d be deaf if you didn’t hear them,” Kyle Schwarber said. Castellanos shook his head. He muttered something about the people who had filled this ballpark. They expected more. The Phillies trailed by two runs Sunday in a game they needed to have. Castellanos was the easiest target.
Paco Figueroa, the first-base coach and self-anointed Castellanos whisperer, locked eyes with the 32-year-old outfielder. He had flailed at two pitches in the fourth inning that weren’t close to being strikes. The boos grew louder. He took a slider. That prompted mocking cheers.
“We looked at each other a little bit,” Figueroa said. “I clapped at him. I’m like, ‘F—k it.’ It’s Philly? You know what I mean? And he takes it personally. Like, Nick in the outfield, he talks to all the fans. He loves that sh-t. He’s a different breed.”
Phillies fans appear to be getting impatient with Nick Castellanos 😳👀 pic.twitter.com/wR94wlsiTn
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) October 6, 2024
This day at the ballpark, an unforgettable 7-6 win over the New York Mets that saved the Phillies from the brink of elimination in the National League Division Series, began with Castellanos taking afternoon batting practice with his son before 45,679 people filled Citizens Bank Park. Liam wasn’t around all season while his father became the oldest Phillies player to start all 162 games in four decades. The days were grueling — as per Castellanos’ wishes. Coaches were willing to carve out extra time in the afternoons so Castellanos could stick with a routine that he believed created nirvana between his body and mind.
This day ended with Castellanos, who had tied his flowing hair into a bun moments after he delivered the fifth walk-off hit in Phillies postseason history, racing to the backstop to see Liam. “The best,” Castellanos said. They shouted, “Let’s go!” at each other.
“When I’m old and no one cares about me as a baseball player anymore,” Castellanos said, “we’re going to be at home and be able to remember and look back at that.”
NICK CASTELLANOS WINS IT FOR THE @PHILLIES!!! #NLDS pic.twitter.com/vM14etkamy
— MLB (@MLB) October 6, 2024
He played the game. The Phillies played the game. For the first 14 1/2 innings of this series, they looked overwhelmed. This is supposed to be their month. This was a new series — not Games 8 and 9 of the 2023 National League Championship Series. The Mets were the plucky underdogs. The Phillies bore the weight of expectations — all of them — and they did not meet the moment.
Now, it’s a series again.
“Yeah,” catcher J.T. Realmuto said. “A couple of us were saying after the game, ‘All right. We can breathe now.’ For whatever reason, it felt a little tense, a little tight coming into the series. We just weren’t really ourselves in the box. I feel like now we can let loose and play our brand of baseball.”
Castellanos was in the middle of it all.
“We’ve gone years and years with Nick, you know?” Figueroa said. (It’s been three years with the Phillies.) “Defense. Swinging at balls in the dirt. But, like, this is why you look at the back of his card. This is why he’s still a f—king really good player. He’s been in the game for a long time. That’s what makes him special.”
Think about everything that happened to this man in three hours and 13 minutes of pressure-packed baseball. He was booed, he was mocked, he sprinted around the bases on a game-tying homer, he plated the go-ahead run from first base on a ball pelted to the right-field corner, then he took a two-strike slider in the ninth inning. He lashed a single to left to win the game. He was standing there at the end.
“Yeah,” Figueroa said. “It’s not normal.”
There was a play a few minutes before Castellanos won it that stuck in Figueroa’s mind afterward. It was the last out of the top of the ninth inning. The Mets had tied it. The ballpark was tense again. Pete Alonso batted. The Phillies put Castellanos in no-doubles defense, so he was deep in the outfield. Alonso skied one to shallow right. Castellanos had to cover 62 feet. He is not the fastest man.
“Once that ball is hit,” Figueroa said, “I’m like, ‘That’s a hit.’ In the regular season, he might not get that. But … this is just different.”
Castellanos snared Alonso’s ball with a trademark sliding dive. Everyone’s focus wavers during 162 games. It is supposed to be sharper in October. It just took the Phillies 14 1/2 innings to flip the switch. With one prodigious swing against a 99 mph fastball from Luis Severino, Bryce Harper did it.
“It almost felt like as soon as Trea (Turner) got on, it felt like Bryce was going to hit a home run,” Realmuto said. “That’s what he does in those moments. So once he came through, you definitely felt the dugout relax a little bit. The ballpark kind of got re-energized there.”
BRYCE HARPER!
BRAND NEW BALLGAME! #NLDS pic.twitter.com/xjCMpqG3hP
— MLB (@MLB) October 6, 2024
The Phillies have slotted Castellanos behind Harper because their expected cleanup hitter has lost confidence. They benched Alec Bohm for Sunday’s game. It has made Castellanos more important.
“Harper is really locked in right now,” manager Rob Thomson said. “It looks like they’re sort of pitching around Harp a little bit, and Casty is coming through. Pick your poison at this point.”
The Phillies have bullpen issues, but so do the Mets. New York will have lefty starters for Games 3 and 4; the Phillies will counter with a lineup that includes Edmundo Sosa and Austin Hays. There will be substitutions in the middle of the games, much like Game 2, and it’ll probably be sloppy. This whole series is body blow after body blow.
“I mean, momentum in this place is everything,” said lefty reliever Matt Strahm, who allowed runs in Game 1 and Game 2. “Especially when we can get 45,000 people behind us like that. I mean, it’s an unbelievable atmosphere. You can’t explain it in words. You just have to feel it. I mean, when we get them going, it gets us going. It was an unbelievable game. And for the offense to turn it on like that, it was great to see.”
If it was the moment that propelled the Phillies toward a series win against their hated rivals, they will remember it for a long time here in Philadelphia. That is the deal Castellanos and his teammates have made with these bleeping people. There is only one rule: They have to win.
Expectations are daunting. But they can create something enduring.
“It’s a lot of fun, especially when we’re all playing together,” Castellanos said. “We’re running after a common goal as a group in this clubhouse. Unselfish baseball is the most fun baseball you can play.”
(Top photo of Nick Castellanos after he celebrated with his son Liam, back left: Rob Tringali / MLB Photos via Getty Images)
