Categories: 2024 Postgame Recaps

Nick Castellanos, Johan Rojas strike late as Phillies stun Angels

Johan Rojas (center) and Nick Castellanos (right) each hit clutch home runs in the ninth inning on Tuesday night. (Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire)

Final score: Phillies 7, Angels 5

ANAHEIM — Sometimes you win games because your best players play well, you make routine plays and you hold on to the comfortable lead those things gave you. Other times, you win games because you are the West Coast Phillies, and for the West Coast Phillies, mayhem rules.

Mayhem came in two exceedingly unlikely forms on Tuesday night in Anaheim: Nick Castellanos, whose struggles have sent him toward the bottom of the lineup, and Johan Rojas, who has always been there. None of that past mattered Tuesday. The pair drilled two of the clutchest home runs of the Phillies’ young season in the ninth inning — Castellanos to tie it and Rojas to put the Phillies ahead — and that was the difference.

It did not look like the Phillies would get away with what preceded it. Spencer Turnbull continued his case to stay in the Phillies’ starting rotation (more on that below), exiting after allowing one earned run in 5 1/3 innings. His departure is where things spiraled. Yunior Marte rolled a double-play ball off the bat of Brandon Drury, but Trea Turner bobbled it, putting two on with one out. It was his fourth error of the season. Only four players have made more.

Luis Rengifo capitalized, times three. 4-3 Angels.

The Phillies scored again soon, but the Angels did first, and the one-run lead held into the ninth. Carlos Estévez, who hung on by a thread for a save on Monday but took 26 pitches to do it, was summoned for a four-out save.

He made it halfway there.

His 12th pitch of the night snuck just over the right-field wall for a game-tying homer that, if it mirrors his go-ahead blast against David Robertson on Aug. 1 last year in Miami, may turn Castellanos’ season around.

His 14th, Bryson Stott doubled.

His 16th was the third home run of a big-league career.

Jeff Hoffman fired a 1-2-3 ninth to earn the save, making the Phillies the first team in baseball to reach 20 wins this season. It stunned a home crowd that had already been stunned earlier in the day, when news broke that Mike Trout would miss extended time with a torn meniscus.

Rengifo’s three-run homer was the second of the night between the two sides. Kyle Schwarber got the scoring started with a 421-foot blast about a dozen rows deep in the second inning.

As absurd as March/April was for the Phillies, it was perhaps even moreso for Alec Bohm. He collected two more hits, which raised his average to the second-best in baseball and his OPS to third. He finishes March/April at .366 and 1.036, respectively. If not for the existence of the Los Angeles Dodgers, those would each lead baseball.

As for the pitching side, Turnbull continued giving the Phillies a difficult decision as they choose how to whittle their six-man rotation down to five. Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola and Ranger Suárez are safe, as is, probably, Taijuan Walker, given his return forcing this conversation in the first place. That leaves Cristopher Sánchez and Turnbull fighting not to be the odd man out.

There are two pitchers in baseball with five different starts of at least five innings and at most one earned run this season. Jordan Hicks is one. Spencer Turnbull is the other.

“We don’t put a number on a guy anymore, just because of the way we can measure fatigue,” manager Rob Thomson said pregame when asked whether Turnbull’s workload would factor into that decision. “So I don’t think we’re really holding back on him at this point at all. It’s just a matter of — we’re not gonna stay with a six-man for a period of time. We might go back to it. But who’s coming out? And whoever that guy is, how are we going to juggle it?”

That is a question the Phillies will answer eventually. For now, they’ll celebrate the most thrilling win of their season, one they didn’t deserve for eight-and-a-sixth innings.

But baseball is nine.

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