Castellanos ‘wakes up’ at the best time for Phillies Game 1 win vs Atlanta in NLDS

It’s something that we’ve been waiting for all season long. The acquisitions that the Phillies made in the off-season last year were interesting. Dave Dombrowski went out and acquired two main free agents on this Phillies team for additional offense prior to the start of the ’22 season.

Castellanos contributed in a big way in the Game 1 win vs the Atlanta Braves in Game 1 NLDS at Atlanta on October 11, 2022

The first player who happened to hit the most home runs in the National League in 2022, of course, is Kyle Schwarber. The 2nd signing was Nick Castellanos, who was a 9-year veteran that played primarily in Detroit most of his career and spent a season and a half with Cincinnati, when in 2021, he happened to be an All-Star and he smacked 34 HR and 100 RBI in a full season for the Reds.

Nick Castellanos by the numbers so far:

Standard Batting
Year Age Tm Lg G AB H HR RBI BA Awards
201321DETAL1118500.278
201422DETAL1485331381166.259RoY-8
201523DETAL1545491401573.255
201624DETAL1104111171858.285
201725DETAL15761416726101.272
201826DETAL1576201852389.298
201927TOTMLB1516151782773.289
201927DETAL1004031101137.273
201927CHCNL51212681636.321
202028CINNL60218491434.225
202129CINNL13853116434100.309AS,MVP-12,SS
202230PHINL1365241381362.263
10 Y10 Y10 Y10 Y122246331281181656.276
162 162 162 162 1626141702487.276
DET DET DET DET 8373148862104424.274
CIN CIN CIN CIN 19874921348134.284
CHC CHC CHC CHC 51212681636.321
PHI PHI PHI PHI 1365241381362.263
AL (AL (AL (AL (8373148862104424.274
NL (NL (NL (NL (385148541977232.282
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 10/12/2022.

Castellanos arrived in Philadelphia to declare that ‘I get paid to hit baseballs’ or something to that effect as he said at the press conference announcing him as a Phillies player. That intrigued many Phillies fans and we waited to see that all season long from Nick Castellanos. It all sounded so good, he was brought in to smash the baseball. What we saw from him during the regular season though didn’t quite live up to the hype. The regular season saw Castellanos hit only 13 HR and 62 RBI in a season in which it looked as if he wasn’t entirely comfortable playing in Philadelphia. In fact, the fans got on him for what they perceived as a player who at times didn’t seem to mind that he wasn’t doing all that well.

Here’s Castellanos (and others) speaking after the Phillies won the Wild Card matchup vs the Cardinals

Embed from Getty Images

Castellanos got it done at the plate and then on the field in Game 1 of the NLDS, it was an amazing catch here that perhaps saved the game for the Phillies as the Braves put up a very late rally in the game and the Phils fended them off to win by a 7-6 score in Atlanta.

Bryce Harper went 3-3 in Game 1 of the series, as Castellanos went 3-5 with 3 RBI in the game, and Alec Bohm chipped in 2 RBI on the day.

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