Nick Castellanos hits walk-off double in the 10th to give Phillies 2-1 win over Brewers

It’s not every day fans chant a player’s name after a defensive play, but Citizens Bank Park isn’t your everyday place. So, in the 10th inning of the Phillies’ 2-1 win over Milwaukee Tuesday night, shortly after J.T. Realmuto threw his body over home plate to block the Brewers’ ghost runner from scoring, he began to hear the crowd: “J.T., J.T., J.T., J.T.”

It meant something to him. The Phillies catcher had put his body on the line all night, and that play wasn’t an easy one. With runners on first and third, the Brewers’ Brice Turang hit a ground ball to second baseman Bryson Stott. Stott gunned it to Realmuto, who couldn’t see very clearly due to two LED lights that had recently been installed in the right-field wall.

“He was standing right in those lights, for me, so that wasn’t much fun,” Realmuto said. “I was really trying to focus and catch the ball. But he put it right on the money.”

Realmuto withstood a collision with Oliver Dunn, the Brewers’ ghost runner, and held onto the ball for the second out of the frame. With a runner on third, reliever Sernathony Domínguez got out of the inning on a foul pop by Joey Ortiz.

That set up the Phillies to win it in the bottom of the inning, which started with Whit Merrifield on second as the ghost runner. Stott was intentionally walked, and Nick Castellanos quickly made the Brewers pay for their decision.

The Phillies right fielder lined the first pitch he saw to the right-field corner for a walk-off double. It was a gratifying moment for Castellanos, who has struggled to string together consistent production over the past few months. He was batting .212/.271/.338 coming into the night, but has been hitting the ball harder of late.

That doesn’t mean he has sat idly by. Castellanos has been putting in work to find his swing, including some extra on-field batting practice with assistant hitting coach Rafael Peña. He’s been working with Peña every day.

“Sometimes with the regular batting practice slot I feel like it can kind of get sped up, with the work, and everybody needs to get in,” Castellanos said. “Getting out there a little bit early, I feel like I can take my time a little bit more. Really feel things that I want to feel. And yeah, it seems to be working.”

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Tuesday’s game had little margin for error. Manager Rob Thomson compared it to a playoff game, in the sense that runs didn’t come easy. Both team’s pitchers were adept at inducing ground balls, and that is what they did. Phillies starter Cristopher Sánchez served up 11 groundouts and Colin Rae, who relieved the Brewers’ opener in the second inning, induced eight in four shutout innings.

The Phillies finished with eight hits and six walks but didn’t score until the eighth inning, when Alec Bohm hit a 420-foot home run to center to snap an 0-for-14 drought and tie the game at 1. The first four hitters in the lineup went 3-for-16, but they were not facing an easy opponent.

The Brewers have built their pitching staff to be unpredictable. Their starters and relievers use unique arm angles, slots, deliveries, and pitch shapes to keep hitters off balance. It’s particularly hard to do damage against their bullpen, because players don’t have an extended look at those unique approaches.

“Just changing speeds and throwing strikes,” Thomson said of the Brewers’ staff. “Just one of those nights, for the top of the lineup. Thankfully, Bohm hits a big home run and Castellanos comes through with a big double to win it.

“And we just scratch and claw. You’re going to have games like that, and you’ve gotta win games like that. And we are.”

It was the Phillies’ pitching and defense that kept them in the game. The infielders were particularly busy, because of the amount of grounders that were hit their way. In the fifth, Bohm made a nice defensive play off of a hard-hit grounder from Gary Sánchez.

The ball hit Bohm in the stomach, and fell to the dirt. He grabbed it bare-handed and threw it to Bryce Harper at first base in time for the out. He made another bare-handed grab in the next at-bat, but Blake Perkins beat the throw for an infield single. In the sixth, William Contreras hit a high bouncer that the 6-foot-5 Bohm leaped to catch, and fired back to first.

“We played great defense tonight,” Thomson said. “Sanchy kept the ball on the ground all night long, and really, everybody did. I thought our defense was really, really, good.”

The Phillies’ pitching staff did its part to keep the game within reach. Sánchez, who saw his velocity tick up again, allowed one earned run on four hits with one walk and three strikeouts in six innings. José Ruiz and Orion Kerkering each pitched a scoreless inning with two strikeouts.

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Kerkering leaned on his fastball again, which has been helping him keep hitters off balance. He threw 10 pitches, six of them sweepers, and four fastballs (three four-seamers and one sinker).

“He’s starting to use his two-seam a little more, so it’s four-seam, two-seam,” Realmuto said of Kerkering. “He’s not just a slider guy now. When he first came up, it seemed like [he was] really comfortable with his slider, and not as comfortable with his fastballs. And now this year, he’s taken that step forward of being able to pitch with his fastball and then also using an elite slider behind it. For me, that’s the key for him.”

Matt Strahm extended his streak of 24⅔ innings without allowing an earned run. He allowed back-to-back hits to start the ninth, but worked his way out of trouble forcing two flyouts and a strikeout (of Rhys Hoskins, which got some sarcastic cheers).

It was a gritty and gratifying win. Castellanos got the walk-off hit, but he wasn’t about to take all of the credit.

“[J.T.] is tough, man,” Castellanos said. “He’s the backbone of our team. And he’s a big reason I was put in a position late in the game to walk it off like that.”