Batting with the bases loaded with the score tied in the bottom of the ninth inning on Saturday, Nick Castellanos was thinking just one thing:
“Let’s win this game,” and then he delivered, drilling the first pitch he saw from Pittsburgh Pirates reliever Roansy Contreras into center field to lift Philadelphia to a 4-3 win.
“We needed that,” Castellanos said. “I needed that. It was a beautiful moment.”
Castellanos and the Phillies will look to build on that moment when they host the Pirates on Sunday to close out the teams’ four-game series. Philadelphia has won two of the first three.
On paper, Castellanos would have been the last hitter the Phillies could want at the plate with a chance to win Saturday’s game. The 12-year veteran entered the day batting .160, the lowest average among Philadelphia’s qualified hitters.
But Castellanos finished with two hits and two RBIs, his first multi-RBI performance of the season.
Castellanos’s contributions were key in atoning for another dreary game from fellow slugger Bryce Harper. A reigning Silver Slugger Award winner, Harper is batting .204 this year after going 0-for-4 with three strikeouts on Saturday.
Still, Castellanos knows that neither he nor Harper will have to work through their early-season slumps alone.
“This game is hard enough as it is,” Castellanos said. ” … There’s always going to be those moments that beat you down. You lean on each other so you can get back up and thrive.”
No hitter thrived more on Saturday than Phillies designated hitter Kyle Schwarber, who went 3-for-3 and belted a leadoff home run.
“This guy can hit,” Pittsburgh manager Derek Shelton said. “You’re talking about a really elite hitter, a guy that’s hit 40-plus homers multiple years. You cannot make mistakes to him. I think we saw that today.”
Schwarber has tallied five hits and drawn three walks in the first three games. His walk to lead off the seventh inning led to the tying run against erratic Pirates reliever Aroldis Chapman.
After Chapman came back from a 3-0 count to retire Trea Turner, he walked Harper on five pitches, then left a first-pitch slider to Alec Bohm in the heart of the strike zone. Bohm’s single to left tied the score.
Chapman retired just one of the four batters he faced and registered his first blown save of the season. But it was his second shaky outing in as many days. The left-hander walked two batters in two-thirds of an inning on Friday.
Shelton isn’t alarmed, though.
“It’s the first time he’s been back-to-back,” Shelton said. “He just looked a little out of sync. You get the two guys at the top of this order that make you work. Chappy’s been good. That was just kind of a blip.”
Shelton will send right-hander Mitch Keller (1-1, 5.29 ERA) to the mound on Sunday for his fourth start of the season.
Keller posted a season-high nine strikeouts in beating the visiting Detroit Tigers on Monday. The 28-year-old is 0-3 with a 5.74 ERA in five career starts against the Phillies.
Zack Wheeler (0-2, 1.89) will start for Philadelphia, which has scored only four runs total in the right-hander’s first three outings.
Wheeler allowed three runs on six hits over seven innings in the Phillies’ 3-0 loss to the Cardinals in St. Louis on Tuesday. The 33-year-old is 4-0 with a 2.14 ERA against Pittsburgh across seven career starts.
–Field Level Media