Nick Castellanos says Red October is a double-edged sword: ‘The environment can be against us’
“When the game is going good, it’s wind at our back, but when the game is not going good, it’s wind in our face,” Castellanos said of Phillies fans at the Bank.
The Phillies’ resident warrior-poet stood in front of his locker and answered every question that came his way. That is usually the case with Nick Castellanos, in victory or defeat, as hero or goat. By the end of the Phillies’ 4-3 loss to the Dodgers on Monday night, the veteran right fielder had almost as much figurative ground to cover as that which he’d literally covered in the game.
From his fielding of a liner that Freddie Freeman improbably stretched to a double, to his own bloop RBI double that improbably set in motion an epic Phillies comeback attempt, to the subsequent comeback-squelching out he made at third base, the maddening duality of Castellanos took center stage in Game 2 of the NLDS. And then, after it was over, and after he’d answered the questions about all of those happenings, somebody asked Castellanos about the Phillies’ recent playoff struggles at home.
» READ MORE: Hayes: ‘The writing’s on the wall’: Phillies face elimination after their billion-dollar bats go silent again
The setup was rather innocuous. Are you surprised you’ve lost five of six games at Citizens Bank Park despite the stadium’s notoriously intimidating environment?
The answer was classic Castellanos: a kernel of truth delivered without regard for the reaction it might provoke.
“I think that the stadium is alive on both sides, right?” Castellanos said after his starring role in a wild ninth inning that nearly saw the Phillies snatch victory from the jaws of defeat before defeat snatched it right back. “When the game is going good, it’s wind at our back, but when the game is not going good, it’s wind in our face. The environment can be with us, and the environment can be against us.”
The Phillies have seen both extremes this series, never more so than the last two innings on Monday night. With the Phillies down 4-0 in the eighth, Max Kepler’s triple and Trea Turner’s base hit with one out cut the deficit to three runs with Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper due up. It would have taken two swings to tie it. They got three from Schwarber, all of which missed. They got four from Harper, the last of which resulted in a harmless fly out to center field. Jhoan Duran took the mound for the ninth, the lights going out to a chorus of boos.
The Phillies made things interesting in their last turn at the plate. A single by Alec Bohm, a double by J.T. Realmuto, and then a two-run bloop by Castellanos that he stretched into a double thanks to a missed tag. But the rally went no further. Rob Thomson made a questionable decision to attempt to bunt the lead-footed Castellanos to third. This time, the tag did not miss, which meant the Phillies only had a runner on first when Harrison Bader hit a one-out single. Kepler grounded into a force out to move the lead runner to third. Turner then grounded out to second to end the game.
The loss brought the Phillies to the precipice of another early offseason in which they will need to answer some hard questions about their future. The way the loss unfolded offered a tidy summation of all that the Phillies will need to consider with their right fielder.
Few players have experienced the highs and lows of Philly stardom quite like Castellanos. He was a founding member of the Red October reboot, one of the leading folk heroes of the Phillies’ 12-2 playoff record at Citizens Bank Park from 2021 through Game 2 of the 2023 NLCS. He was also responsible for the only game they’ve won in their six most recent games, with a walk-off single in Game 2 of last year’s NLDS.
“When everything’s going good and you’re rolling it’s a [pain] to play here when you’re an opposing team because the environment is amazing,” Castellanos said. “But if we run into adversity and the tide shifts and now we’re playing more tight because we don’t want to be reprimanded for something bad.”
The observation itself is valid. Self-evidential, even. In an environment like Citizens Bank Park, in a month like October, the bad is amplified along with the good. What’s missing is the full and complete context of the Phillies’ postseason woes. Yes, they’ve struggled at home. But they’ve lost four of their last five games on the road, too.
The fact of the matter: The Phillies are a team of extremes, and even an extreme amount of positive energy would not change that. They are a team of Schwarbombs and strikeouts and streaks of greatness from Harper. Citizens Bank Park saw those extremes from Castellanos on Monday night, perhaps for the last time.
Dodgers win the series 3-1
Game 1: Dodgers 5, Phillies 3 | Hayes | Murphy
Game 2: Dodgers 4, Phillies 3 | Hayes | Murphy
Game 3: Phillies, 8, Dodgers 2 | Hayes | Murphy
Game 4: Dodgers 2, Phillies 1 (11) | Hayes
