Phillies beat the Mets on J.T. Realmuto’s walk-off single; magic number is down to five

Nick Castellanos is not the fastest player. He has six stolen bases this season and has a sprint speed that ranks in the 52nd percentile in baseball. But on Sunday afternoon, in the bottom of the ninth inning, he decided to go for it.

The Phillies were in the midst of a tension-filled tie game against the Mets at Citizens Bank Park. There was one out, and Castellanos was on first base after hitting a single to right off Mets reliever Edwin Diaz.

When Alec Bohm struck out in the next at-bat, Castellanos took off for second. He reached the bag in time. It was an overlooked moment, but an important one. It meant that J.T. Realmuto — who was up next — didn’t have to hit for extra bases. And sure enough, a line drive single by the Phillies catcher got Castellanos home safely.

Realmuto ran to right field, where he was engulfed by his teammates. The catcher was credited with the walk-off hit in the 2-1 victory but was eager to give Castellanos credit.

“Him being able to get that bag changed the entire game for us,” Realmuto said. “I think finding ways to win is something we’ve been doing a really good job of. It’s not necessarily the long ball every game. We’re just finding ways to get it done.”

If anything, that was the story of this weekend. After an 11-3 loss on Friday, the Phillies bounced back to win the three-game series over the Mets. Their win brought their magic number to clinch the NL East down to six (and down to five after the Braves lost to the Dodgers on Sunday night). They are the first team in baseball to reach 90 wins, a feat they haven’t achieved since 2011. And on Sunday, they got there by finding little ways to win.

There were contributions big and small. Cristopher Sánchez gave his team seven-plus innings of one-run ball, allowing only six hits and one walk with seven strikeouts before leaving when Tyrone Taylor led off the Mets’ eighth with a homer and Harrison Bader singled. Orion Kerkering came in and got out of the eighth with one hit, and José Ruiz — who was signed to a minor-league contract last November — retired the Mets in order in the ninth.

There was not much room for error, given how the Mets were pitching. Like Sánchez, starter David Peterson tossed seven shutout innings. In the eighth, he began to falter. Weston Wilson hit a leadoff double, and fellow triple-A call-up Buddy Kennedy — who was released by the Tigers in June — drove him home with a double to left field.

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As Kennedy stood on second base, fans began to chant his first name. It felt like October.

“Being able to watch those guys succeed, and come through the way they have, it just gives us that much more confidence going into the postseason,” Realmuto said. “We know we have a lot of guys we can count on in this clubhouse.”

It has become abundantly clear that Sánchez is another guy the Phillies can count on. Manager Rob Thomson has begun to field questions about the possibility of Sánchez starting Game 2 of a playoff series. He won’t comment on that yet, but he has not ruled it out.

“He’s been throwing the ball so well and so consistently all year,” Thomson said of Sánchez. “Forty-two out of the first 50 pitches were strikes. Twenty-two or 23 out of 29 first-pitch strikes. And it’s not like he’s lobbing the ball in there. I mean, it’s stuff. Sink, 96 miles per hour, landing the slider. The changeup had a lot of bottom to it. He’s really, really pitched really well.”

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The left-hander added muscle last offseason, and has continued to add more this year. It has paid off. Not only is Sánchez healthy, and powering past his career-high innings total from last year, but his velocity is ticking up, too.

He averaged 94.8 mph on his sinker, 85.3 mph on his changeup, and 85.1 mph on his slider on Sunday — all increases from his yearly averages. His hardest-thrown pitch of the day, a 95.9 mph sinker, was delivered in the eighth inning.

“He’s getting better and better, it feels like,” Realmuto said. “And his stuff is also ticking up as his start goes. It feels like he gets better later in the innings, which is unique. He’s been great.”

There are 13 games left to play, but there is still work to be done. The Phillies want to finish the year with the best record in baseball so they can secure home-field advantage throughout the postseason. Sánchez, of all people, understands how important that advantage can be.

He has pitched to a 2.05 ERA at home this season, and was on the playoff roster last year. He didn’t pitch then in Citizens Bank Park, but he hopes to get the chance in October.

“The experience has helped me a lot,” Sánchez said. “I’ve been here during the postseason. I’ve seen a lot. And I like it.”