Nick Castellanos smacked a two-out single in the ninth inning to give the Philadelphia Phillies a thrilling and series-leveling 7-6 walkoff victory over the New York Mets in Major League Baseball’s playoffs on Sunday.
Castellanos’s line drive to left field sent shortstop Trea Turner racing over home plate for the winning run in the final act of another epic duel between the two National League divisional rivals at Citizens Bank Park.
“Unbelievable,” Castellanos said. “It was incredible. The series is even, but there’s a lot of baseball left. We have to turn the page and get focused on game three as quickly as possible.”
The underdog Mets, who had stunned the Phillies 6-2 in game one on Saturday, once again provided stubborn resistance in an encounter that went back-and-forth.
Mark Vientos crushed a two-run homer in the third inning to put the Mets 2-0 ahead before Pete Alonso bludgeoned a 370-foot home run to right center field to leave the visitors 3-0 up in the top of the sixth.
But after going a combined 13 innings without a score over game one and two, the Phillies bats suddenly came alive in the sixth inning.
Bryce Harper smashed a two-run homer to make it 3-2 before Castellanos tied it up with a 425-foot moon shot in the same inning.
The Mets regained the lead through Brandon Nimmo’s home run in the top of the seventh, only for the Phillies to respond with two runs to make it 5-4 after Bryson Stott’s triple in the bottom of the eighth.
Stott then tacked on a run after J.T Realmuto reached on a fielder’s choice, to leave the Phillies seemingly poised for victory at 6-4 heading into the final inning.
However the Mets — who have made a habit of late comebacks throughout their postseason campaign — were not done.
Vientos hit his second homer of the game to score with Francisco Lindor and leave it knotted at 6-6 before Castellanos rescued the Phillies once again.
Game three in the best-of-five series takes place in New York on Tuesday.
