Catch it? Drop it? Nick Castellanos’ gamble pays off to help Phillies win series over the Braves

ATLANTA — Rob Thomson was thinking, “Drop it.” Bryson Stott was thinking, “Drop it.” Garrett Stubbs was screaming, “Drop it,” and for a moment, Phillies right fielder Nick Castellanos thought he would. But then, just as Orlando Arcia’s fly ball fell within reach in foul territory, a voice entered his head.

“[It] said, ‘Catch it and throw him out,’” Castellanos said.

This was the ninth inning of a tie ballgame on Wednesday. The bullpen had blown a two-run lead. The Braves had Luke Williams, the potential winning run, on third base, with one out. If Castellanos had let that foul ball hit the dirt, Williams couldn’t have tagged up. Instead, Castellanos reached out his glove and bet on himself, en route to a 6-5 Phillies win in 10 innings in which he’d already hit two home runs.

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It was a gutsy decision. And when he caught that ball, not everyone was sure his throw would make it home in time.

“Oh, crap,” Stott thought. Castellanos’ momentum wasn’t moving toward the plate. He didn’t get behind the ball. But what happened next made all of that a moot point. Castellanos spun around, and gunned it to Stubbs. The ball reached him on one bounce. Stubbs made a perfect tag while standing up, and together, they sent the Phillies and Braves into the 10th inning.

“I think he referred to the devil and the angel on his shoulder,” Stubbs said. “One says, ‘Drop it,’ and one says, ‘Make an outstanding play,’ and thankfully, he went with the outstanding play, because who knows what would’ve happened if he drops it there.

“Arcia is obviously a good hitter and you’ve got [Ronald] Acuña on deck. I was expecting Luke [Williams] to put a cleat into my IT band, but I escaped the contact there and ended up getting him out. Really fun play.”

From there, the Phillies faced Braves reliever A.J. Minter in the 10th. With the ghost runner on second, Kyle Schwarber walked, but Trea Turner grounded into a double play to give Atlanta two quick outs. Bryce Harper walked, and then he and Johan Rojas, pinch-running for Schwarber, executed a double steal.

Alec Bohm was intentionally walked to load the bases for Stott. It was a lefty-on-lefty matchup, and Stott was 0-for-his-last-10, but he has hit well against Minter in his career. He lined a two-run double to left field to give the Phillies a 6-4 lead.

Reliever Matt Strahm allowed just a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 10th to earn the save and give the Phillies a gritty series win over the Braves on the road.

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“You know how you stack up against somebody,” Stott said of facing the Braves. “One swing kind of determines each game, it feels like. We want it to be our swing.”

This would have been a brutal game to lose. Aaron Nola had his best start in weeks, allowing just two runs on six hits in six innings with eight strikeouts. It has been a frustrating season for him. But at the heart of his problems is the “big inning,” as manager Thomson calls it, when the hits start to fall, the runs start to score, and Nola is unable to stop the bleeding.

It hasn’t always been this way. Thomson said that before this season, Nola was a “chaos killer,” a starter who was able to pitch his way out of trouble. But the rules are different now. Pitchers are only allowed two pickoff throws per plate appearance. A 20-second pitch clock dwindles down when there is a runner on base.

Every pitcher has had to adjust, and some have adjusted well. Nola has not, which has led to more “big innings.” But on Wednesday afternoon, that big inning never came.

Nola held the Braves hitless for his first three frames. Only one ball left the infield, a lineout to left field by Acuña. In the fourth, he allowed back-to-back singles to put runners on first and second. But instead of spiraling, he pitched his way out of trouble. Nola struck out Austin Riley, allowed an RBI single to Matt Olson and threw a wild pitch that allowed both runners to advance. He retired Marcell Ozuna on a line drive to short and struck out Eddie Rosario to end the inning.

“I limited the damage, it felt like for the first time in a while,” Nola said. “Overall, I felt pretty good, no walks, I felt like I was getting ahead for the most part, changeup was working a good bit today and got strikeouts when I needed to. Defense played really good behind me. Great win.”

Nola threw 94 pitches, of which 68 were strikes. He didn’t allow a home run or a walk for just the second time this season. His changeup and his curveball helped him pitch through jams.

“My changeup was more consistent today,” he said. “So I could throw that in the zone. My curveball, too, was a little more consistent. Just trying to get ahead, that was my main focus today. It worked for the most part.”

After José Alvarado pitched a 1-2-3 seventh inning in relief, the Braves tied the score at 4 in the eighth inning on Riley’s RBI single against Jeff Hoffman and Ozuna’s run-scoring double off Gregory Soto.

The Phillies were 3½ games up in the top wild-card spot going into Wednesday night’s games. Their magic number to clinch a playoff berth was seven.

Since Sept. 9, when Castellanos was dropped to eighth in the lineup for the first time since 2015, he has hit five home runs, including the two on Wednesday. In the second inning, he hit a solo shot to center field, and in the fourth, he hit a two-run homer to right-center.

Castellanos accounted for three of the Phillies’ four runs in the first nine innings. It was not a good offensive day for the lineup, overall. The Phillies drew 10 walks, but went 2-for-8 with runners in scoring position, and finished with just five hits.

“I like him down there because it gives you some more thump down in the bottom of the lineup,” Thomson said. “As I said to him, when we did it, he’s going to have plenty of opportunity to drive people in, because the guys in front of him, whether it’s J.T. [Realmuto] or [Brandon] Marsh or whoever, they’re going to get on base. He’s going to have plenty of opportunities for RBI.”