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Phillies answer Mets’ ninth-inning magic with Nick Castellanos walk-off to tie NLDS

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3 months ago

October 6, 2024

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Phillies answer Mets’ ninth-inning magic with Nick Castellanos walk-off to tie NLDS

PHILADELPHIA — An improbable Mets comeback — only the umpteenth in the last week — turned into a gut punch Sunday night.

One miracle short for a change, the Mets couldn’t survive the bottom of the ninth after Mark Vientos’ second home run of the game a half-inning earlier had his team harboring dreams of heading to Queens within a victory of the NLCS.

“Sometimes you are not going to win, but we threw some punches and I am very proud of these guys,” Brandon Nimmo said after Tylor Megill surrendered a walk-off RBI single to Nick Castellanos that sent the Mets to a 7-6 loss to the Phillies in Game 2 of the NLDS at Citizens Bank Park.

Megill, who walked Trea Turner and Bryce Harper, had entered the game in the eighth following an Edwin Diaz blown save.

Vientos tied it 6-6 with a shot into the left-field seats against lefty Matt Strahm in the ninth.

“It was a heck of a game, both teams battled, and I am excited to get back to Citi Field,” Vientos said.

The great wild card in this Mets surge into the postseason and early success has been which version of Diaz will show up on any given day or inning.

There was the Diaz who imploded in last Monday’s eighth inning in Atlanta before begging for the ball in the ninth and shutting the door to catapult the Mets into the playoffs.

There was the Diaz who three nights later stifled the Brewers and allowed the Mets to rally for a NL Wild Card Series clinching victory.

And then there was Sunday night, when it came full circle for the right-hander.

Diaz, after getting the final out in the seventh inning and one to begin the eighth, cracked again.

Bryson Stott’s two-run triple against Diaz was the crusher.

“I have just got to flush it and be ready on Tuesday,” Diaz said.

The Phillies’ go-ahead rally against Diaz began with Harper drawing a one-out walk in the eighth before Castellanos singled on a 98-mph fastball that put runners on the corners.

Stott, on the sixth pitch of his at-bat, hammered a slider into the right-field corner for a two-run triple that put the Mets in a 5-4 hole.

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Diaz departed for Megill and J.T. Realmuto’s RBI fielder’s choice brought in the insurance run.

“[Diaz] came in in the seventh — I thought that was the game right there with their best hitters coming up,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “And [Diaz] got [Kyle] Schwarber and then he got Turner [in the eighth]. They’re a good team, great hitters. It just didn’t happen today.”

After Luis Severino flushed a 3-0 advantage by allowing consecutive homers to Harper and Castellanos in the sixth to tie it, Nimmo regained the lead for the Mets with a solo blast in the seventh.

Severino’s final line over six innings (91 pitches) included three earned runs on six hits with seven strikeouts.

It was a second straight start this postseason in which the right-hander surrendered three earned runs in six innings (also in Game 1 of the NL Wild Card Series on Tuesday in Milwaukee).

Vientos hit a two-run homer against Cristopher Sanchez in the third to account for the game’s first runs.

Francisco Lindor singled in the inning before Vientos went to the opposite field, just clearing the fence in right.

Pete Alonso opened the sixth inning with a homer against Jose Ruiz that extended the Mets’ lead to 3-0.

The blast was Alonso’s second in three games — his ninth-inning homer Thursday in Milwaukee saved the Mets season.

The lefty Sanchez lasted five innings and allowed two earned runs on five hits and a walk with five strikeouts.

Severino got stampeded in the sixth, throwing a 99-mph fastball that Harper crushed for a two-run homer to pull the Phillies within 3-2.

The next batter, Castellanos, jumped on a sweeper up in the strike zone for a 425-foot homer to left-center that tied the game.

“We took one out of two here and we’ve been on the road for the last six months it feels like,” Severino said. “It feels good that we’ve been winning games. We’re going to be home, the crowd is going to be into it and we’re going to win some games.”