‘Little League’ play helps put Phillies back into sole possession of first place in the NL East with rout of Mets

Nick Castellanos is almost halfway through his 13th major league season. It has been 15 years since he got drafted. Do the math, and it’s safe to say he has slid across home plate hundreds of times.

Just never quite like this.

Yet when Castellanos watched the replay late Friday night and saw himself and J.T. Realmuto brush home plate with their left hands within a split second of each other in the signature play of the Phillies’ 10-2 rout of the Mets, the whole thing seemed, well, oddly familiar.

“It looks like, what is it, Rookie of the Year?" Castellanos said.

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Does he mean Major League, when “Willie Mays Hays” and a teammate slide across home plate almost simultaneously during the winning streak montage?

“I can’t remember which,” Castellanos said, smiling at the end of a personally tumultuous week in which Thomson benched him for insubordination. “But I know it’s one of those baseball movies. And it’s a funny scene.”

One thing’s for sure: The synchronized slides on a bases-clearing double by Bryson Stott in a six-run seventh inning turned a tight game into a knee-slapper for the Phillies.

And Realmuto’s smile while zooming around third base — “I couldn’t help myself,” he said — captured the mood of the two NL East rivals, as the Phillies won for the ninth time in 11 games and the Mets lost their seventh in a row.

For the first time since May 30, the Phillies (46-30) went to sleep in sole possession of first place in the division, with two more nationally televised night games against the Mets (45-31) coming up in a series that marks the official start of summer in South Philly.

“Trust me, there’s ups and downs to the season,” manager Rob Thomson said. “But I’m happy with where we’re at right now.”

There were other notable moments from the series opener.

Start here: Taijuan Walker, in his latest audition for a high-leverage relief role, allowed back-to-back solo home runs to Pete Alonso and Jeff McNeil to enable the Mets to tie the game in the sixth inning. But lefty Tanner Banks entered and got five big outs.

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Trea Turner continued his All-Star push with a tiebreaking double in the seventh inning after Brandon Marsh led off with a double. Marsh went 3-for-4 and has 15 hits in his last 34 at-bats.

“Maybe I’m just shrinking the zone a little bit, trying to stay over the heart of the plate,” Marsh said. “I know it’s a cliché saying, but just trying to stay off the edges, where [pitchers] want to be.”

And then there was Zack Wheeler, who overcame spotty control early and threw five scoreless innings. He might’ve come out for the sixth, too, if home-plate umpire Jonathan Parra had rung up Brandon Nimmo on a two-strike sinker. The pitch was inside, a smidge off the plate. But Parra called strikes on similar pitches throughout the game.

Instead, Wheeler threw seven more pitches to get out of the fifth inning, bringing his total to 98. With the Phillies likely to keep Wheeler on regular rest for his next start, Thomson decided to go with Walker in the sixth.

“It was frustrating,” Wheeler said of the inconsistent strike zone. “The next at-bat, he called two strikes that were balls in the same exact spot. Everybody can’t be perfect, but it’s frustrating when you’re out there competing.”

But that was long forgotten after the big seventh inning, and especially after Castellanos’ two-run homer in the eighth.

In fact, all that anyone was talking about was the play at the plate involving Castellanos and Realmuto.

“I kind of felt like I was playing a Little League game with that play,” Realmuto said. “Even getting back in the dugout, everyone was laughing, having fun with it. Just a different scenario than you usually see in the game. Being able to have that fun and just laugh in the dugout, that was a special moment.”

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It began with Castellanos on second base and Realmuto on first. Stott crushed a ball toward the angled wall in left-center field. Castellanos was “hovering” to gauge where the ball would land.

Once it hit the wall and bounced on the warning track, he took off.

With Realmuto right behind him.

“I don’t think I ever actually yelled [at him],” Realmuto said, “but I was definitely thinking it.”

No yelling was necessary, according to Castellanos. How aware was he of how close Realmuto was?

“Aware,” Castellanos said. “I knew where he was.”

There wasn’t time for third base coach Dusty Wathan to stop Realmuto without also stopping Castellanos. And he definitely wasn’t stopping Castellanos.

They were so close, in fact, that Mets catcher Luis Torrens made one swipe at tagging either of them.

“I basically made a decision rounding third base in my head that we were going to either both be out or both be safe,” Realmuto said. “Luckily, we both snuck in there.”

That’s how it goes when you’re on a 9-2 roll.

“I think I was smiling the whole time,” Realmuto said. “It was one of those plays you really never prepare for. It was fun to be a part of.”