PHILADELPHIA — You realize what they are saying about first impressions, proper? Properly overlook it. It’s nonsense.
The Phillies have run again final season’s NLDS outcome: a 3-1 victory over the rival Atlanta Braves, the no. 1 seed within the Nationwide League bracket. This day out was slightly extra acrimonious than the final, at occasions slightly extra touch-and-go, as a cavalcade of pitchers solely barely saved the cap on the violently fizzing soda bottle that’s Atlanta’s offense.
However with Braves ace Spencer Strider standing between the Phillies and a return to the NLCS, two gamers who had been on the verge of being run out of city up to now 12 months — Nick Castellanos and Trea Turner — put the group on their backs.
“These two are powerful guys,” mentioned Phillies supervisor Rob Thomson. “I don’t know the numbers, however at occasions when guys signal huge contracts, they anticipate to do rather a lot. They need to do rather a lot for his or her teammates, for the fan base, for town, and they also put slightly additional stress on themselves. And it takes some time simply to chill out and settle in and be themselves. Each these guys have completed that now, and I’m blissful about that.”
When the Phillies went all-in on energy bats earlier than the 2022 season, Castellanos was the group’s premier acquisition, incomes a five-year, $100 million contract after an enormous 2021 marketing campaign with the Reds. The 2022 season went poorly: a .263/.305/.389 line and 94 wRC+, and with detached protection in proper area, he was a below-replacement-level participant general. Castellanos did present some important glovework within the playoffs, however in 69 plate appearances he hit simply .185/.232/.246.
And but supervisor Rob Thomson hit him fifth in each sport of final postseason, behind Bryce Harper. That meant that when Castellanos made an out, it usually derailed a rally. In 12 high-leverage plate appearances with males on base, Castellanos went 3-for-11, all singles, and hit into two double performs. It was not the way in which anybody needed Castellanos’ Phillies profession to begin, and the 4 remaining years on his deal seemed fairly lengthy certainly.
“Despite the fact that I didn’t carry out nicely, I loved the postseason final 12 months as a result of I used to be grateful that I had the chance to play,” Castellanos mentioned. “This 12 months, I really feel prefer it’s simply me being in a extra comfy spot. All the additional power that comes with playoff baseball, I’m in a position to channel it higher.”
Castellanos was a lot better in 2023, hitting .272/.311/.476 and making the All-Star group. And because the Phillies-Braves collection swung north, he’s been elegant. Harper was the headline determine in Sport 3, however when the Braves broke via to open the scoring in opposition to Aaron Nola on Wednesday evening, it was Castellanos who answered again first with a solo house run.
In Sport 4, the Phillies probed Strider incessantly within the early innings, placing two males on base with one out in every of the primary three innings, however every time they got here up with diddly-squat. Between his Sport 1 begin and the primary three innings of Sport 4, Ranger Suárez had been unhittable; the Braves had managed simply three baserunners — successful, a stroll, and an error — off the Phillies lefty in that point.
However within the fourth inning of Sport 4, they began to determine him out. Austin Riley plucked a changeup off his footwear and flung it simply over the left area fence to place Atlanta up 1-0; any prolonged preservation of that lead would suck the life out of the Phillies and provides Strider an opportunity to get better.
“We all know how vital momentum is in these postseason video games,” Castellanos mentioned. “So anytime that you just really feel it could be swinging within the different course, we do an excellent job of locking it in to get the momentum again in our favor. That’s vital to our group.”
Certain sufficient, it was Castellanos who answered as soon as once more. He turned on a first-pitch slider from Strider and knocked it out of the park. All evening, the Braves’ ace had been in a position to throw previous Phillies hitters however struggled to find and left occasional hittable errors within the zone. When he confronted Castellanos once more with two outs within the fifth, he was emptying the tank. The fourth pitch of the at-bat was a 100.7 mph fastball. The fifth got here in at an excellent 100, and left at 112.4:
OOPS HE DID IT AGAIN pic.twitter.com/wbYPHVmECq
— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) October 13, 2023
It was the hardest-hit ball Castellanos had ever hit in a Phillies uniform. The second-hardest-hit, 112.2 mph, was Castellanos’ Sport 3 homer in opposition to AJ Smith-Shawver. He’s the third Phillie to file two multi-home run video games in a single postseason, and the primary participant from any group to homer greater than as soon as in consecutive playoff video games.
“I believe he’s distinctive. He’s one among one,” Turner mentioned of Castellanos after the sport. “I don’t know if I’ve met anyone like him. And I imply that in a great way. He’s totally different. And he can actually, actually hit… It’s cool seeing him simply do his factor. And no matter what folks take into consideration him, he’s simply his personal particular person. So I really like him and respect him for that. This collection has been actually cool only for him individually, however as a group, too.”
When Castellanos got here out to proper area to begin the highest of the seventh, the gang roared to salute him, like a Roman consul celebrating a triumph. A crowd of skeptics had change into a large number of admirers — his multitude, as he was reminded an inning later when the thunderous applause reappeared for his fourth plate look. Castellanos duly grounded a ball via the left aspect to achieve base for the fourth time on the evening, and to file the forty fourth sport of three hits or extra in Phillies playoff historical past.
An inning earlier, Turner beat out an infield single to change into the primary Phillies participant to file 4 base hits in a playoff sport.
Turner was the newest addition to the Phillies’ cavalcade of begins, signing an 11-year, $300 million contract throughout final 12 months’s winter conferences. And having gained a World Sequence in Washington, Turner’s maiden voyage in his first season up I-95 began out pitiably.
After Sport 4, Turner was requested how his expertise with the Phillies to date in comparison with his expectations when he signed that deal.
“I didn’t suppose I might stink for 100 video games, and I did,” Turner mentioned.
Turner’s mighty struggles within the first half of the season are well-documented, as is the pick-me-up he received from Phillies followers in early August. That ovation has come to outline Turner’s season; the one different place “Turner” and “Ovation” present up this incessantly, this shut collectively, is on the acoustic guitar rack at Sam Ash.
Turner was hitting .235/.290/.368 when Residents Financial institution Park gave him that push; he hit .339/.391/.677 for the remainder of the common season, and in six postseason video games, he’s 12-for-24 with 4 doubles, two house runs, and 4 stolen bases.
In three plate appearances in opposition to Strider, Turner noticed 5 pitches and swung at each single one. The primary two, triple-digit fastballs, he fouled off. The remaining three went for base hits: a first-inning double, then a third-inning single. With one out within the fifth, Strider gave Turner the ball he was in search of: first-pitch slider, belt-high and on the internal half of the plate:
TREA SHIESTY IS AT IT AGAIN pic.twitter.com/4bBIhl3GzC
— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) October 13, 2023
That was the $300 million hit, the eventual game-winning house run off the unhittable opponent in an important sport of the 12 months to this point.
“[Strider]’s received nice stuff. Everyone knows it,” Turner mentioned. “I really feel like up to now, in my at-bats off him, I missed [those pitches], fouled them off, no matter it’s. And I [tip my] cap to him, as a result of he’s received great things. However tonight it was simply: Don’t miss these pitches. I received these pitches to hit, and I didn’t miss them.”
Turner was busy within the area as nicely: He recorded both the help or the putout on six of Atlanta’s first 12 outs, and would have had a seventh if Harper had made a greater decide on a ball that went down as a Turner throwing error.
Over the course of the sport, Turner, Harper, and Castellanos — Philadelphia’s three highest-paid place gamers, beneath contract for practically three quarters of a billion {dollars} amongst them — confirmed, in Harper’s phrases, “why you spend the cash, child.”
These three got here to the plate 12 occasions in whole and made a grand whole of 1 out: 8-for-9 with three walks, three house runs, and a double.
The Phillies by no means did pull forward by sufficient to chill out. Craig Kimbrel used each little bit of highway out there to him, plus the shoulder, plus scuffing his hubcaps on the curb, in stomping out a seventh-inning rally. Ronald Acuña Jr. drove a ball to the hole in left middle with the bases loaded and two out, however watched Johan Rojas drag it down.
the silence – the explosion
rojas catch with no commentators and simply crowd noise pic.twitter.com/vM43M1dDwl— jaiden (@steph_turkey) October 13, 2023
The Braves put the tying run on base once more with no person out within the ninth, earlier than Matt Strahm procured the ultimate three outs. Scariest of all, Harper took a bump to his surgically repaired proper arm on an in depth play at first within the eighth; he got here off the sphere within the arms of reliever Gregory Soto, however stayed within the sport and seems no worse for put on.
And so the Phillies spin ahead to the NLCS with their preferrred roster nearly solely intact. It’s an unusually advantageous place for a group to be on this deep into October. With many of the high seeds having attritted themselves out of the playoff image, the Phillies are favorites to win the pennant once more, and digital co-favorites, with the Astros, to win the World Sequence.
That was what everybody — gamers, group, followers — anticipated of Turner and Castellanos once they signed in Philadelphia. Thomson was requested if he was blissful the Phillies had opened their checkbook to signal these gamers.
“Yeah, it’s not my cash, so I’m very blissful that we signed them,” Thomson joked. “Due to [Phillies owner] John Middleton.”
Thomson and his costly prices are actually eight wins from the last word prize, and taking part in higher than ever. It was a rocky begin, however now every part goes in keeping with plan.