Phillies, Mets settle in for a siege

Castellanos rescues the N.L. East champs to tie the Division Series

Nick Castellanos

When it was finally, truly over, and the Mets’ 27th out had been certified by the Vice President, Bryce Harper turned his attention to Nick Castellanos, his Phillies’ teammate. “He has no heartbeat,” Harper said.

We know what he meant. It’s become a psychological watchword when describing athletic feats. The moment isn’t too big. Everything slows down for him. But that wasn’t quite the point here. Without Castellanos in Game 2 of the Division Series, the Phillies are perilously close to heart failure. A loss would have meant an 0-2 deficit in a best-of-5 series. Instead, Castellanos was the guy with the paddles. He maintained their heartbeat and their belief, although it’s difficult to imagine any team as confident as the Mets these days. Desperation and ambition always make for great matchups, and the Phillies won it in the ninth, 7-6, on a single by Castellanos that scored Trea Turner.

The Mets seemed to have won it twice on separate home runs by Brandon Nimmo and the revelatory Mark Vientos, and the Phillies had to retaliate twice. Castellanos was in the midst of all that. In the eighth he singled Harper over to third, and they both scored on Bryson Stott’s triple, and the Phillies shoved across another run to lead, 6-4. But it was 6-6 in the bottom of the ninth, with two out, when reliever Trevor Megill walked Turner and Harper. Castellanos then banged the game-winning single to left. In between, he ended the Mets’ ninth by keeping Pete Alonso’s dart from falling to earth in right-field.

A special game, in other words, one in which the fabled Citizens Bank Park crowd did nothing to douse the Mets’ spirit, one that reinforced the supremacy of games without clocks, one in which the Phillies realized the burdens of getting a first-round bye and playing no baseball for nearly a week. They had been on the other side the past two years, coming in hot and beating the rested and rusty Braves. They lost the World Series to Houston in 2022 and the NLCS to Arizona last year, and that reduces the acceptable outcomes to only one. There will be no comfort from the Philly faithful if this team comes up short.

There’s been a perceived softening in the local “attytood” lately. Last year they sensed Turner was scuffling in his first year as a Phillie, and they gave him a standing ovation at his lowest point, which inspired him down the stretch. The fans love the expressive Harper,  who never misses a chance to extol their passion, and they love Kyle Schwarber, who looks like he could be working the second shift at the nearby refinery. But they haven’t always known what to make of Castellanos, a 32-year-old who passed through Detroit, the Cubs and Cincinnati before he got to Philly in 2022.

Castellanos is a solid .274 lifetime hitter with 233 career home runs, and he’s 6-foot-4 and looks the part of an All-Star. But he requires patience, because his year-to-year consistency hides month-to-month intermittance. He had a dismal .521 OPS in April, and he hit .229 in May. In September he had a .858 OPS and slugged .494. In June of 2023 Castellanos hit .351, and in July he hit .162. He went 1 for 24 in last year’s NLCS loss, after hitting .462 vs. Atlanta in the Series before, and becoming the first player ever to have two consecutive two-homer games in postseason.

Even on Sunday, Castellanos prompted some boos when he chased impossible pitches, and even some smart-aleck cheers when he managed to let one go by. Then he reloaded and fired again.

In spring training Castellanos surprised manager Rob Thomson when he told him, “This year, 162, OK?” He had changed his winter workouts so he could prepare to play every day. Three times in his career he had gotten to 157 games played, and he looks like one of those guys who would be difficult to hurt, like a century-old oak. Castellanos indeed had perfect attendance, playing all 162, joined only by the Mets’ Alonso and the Braves’ Matt Olson and Marcell Ozuna. He doesn’t seem particularly worse for wear.

Because of his short-term unreliability and his opaque personality, Castellanos hasn’t won over all the Philly-stines in the seats. But he has endeared himself to others because he doesn’t play the platitude game. When a TBS sideline reporter recited Castellanos’ home run records against Atlanta last year and then stuck his mic in his face, Castellanos replied, “What was the question in that?” This year, after he’d watched some of the National League bottom-feeders and how badly they’re overmatched, he suggested that owners should be forced to give up their teams if they fail to win over a five-year span or so. Players, after all, get released when they don’t perform.

The Phillies have Aaron Nola, one of baseball’s steadiest pitchers, for Game 3 in New York. Citi Field hasn’t seen the Mets since Sept. 22 and will no doubt explode with thanks. It’s been quite a week for them — splitting a doubleheader to get into the playoffs on Monday, getting past Milwaukee in a 3-game Wild Card series Tuesday through Thursday, and now this. In those seven games, New York has scored 26 runs in the eighth and ninth innings. Late comebacks are self-perpetuating. Late losses, too.

Manager Carlos Mendoza has received straight As for the way the Mets have pulled themselves from a 24-35 hole on June 2. But he fell victim to Bullpen Follies in this one. With two men on and two out in the seventh, he called for Edwin Diaz, his closer, who came in to retire Kyle Schwarber. This was hailed as “brilliant” by the Fox dugout reporter, because it was such a high-leverage situation, the Mets leading 4-3, that it had to be addressed right away. Unfortunately for the Mets, MLB games still are nine innings long at least. Diaz then sat through the Mets’ eighth and came back out, which is another thing closers don’t do very often. He faced four batters, got one out, gave up Stott’s triple, and the Mets had to mount another comeback. When the ninth did roll around, Mendoza had to use Megill, who did have 21 saves but doesn’t have Diaz’s pedigree or experience.

This is one reason the closer wears such a bullseye in the playoffs. He is continually asked to do something unfamiliar, even though baseball has trained him to be the most rigid creature of habit on the field. No doubt Diaz would have handled the situation if it were dice baseball or a fantasy league, but this situation, and especially this series, is flesh and blood.