Castellanos snaps power drought with 2-HR game

PHILADELPHIA -- Nick Castellanos had never gone this long without hitting a home run in his professional career -- but Phillies manager Rob Thomson wasn't exactly pressing the panic button.

"Just based on the history, for him, he's hit home runs in the past and I expect him to do it again," Thomson said Saturday morning at Citizens Bank Park.

Hours later, Castellanos hit not one, but two home runs -- his first two of the season and his first multihomer game as a Phillie -- to lead his club to a 4-3 victory over the Rockies. After opening the scoring with a solo shot in the second inning, Castellanos hit the decisive blast to snap a 3-3 tie in the sixth.

That also snapped a 48-game homer drought (including the postseason), by far the longest of his career.

"Yeah, it felt good," Castellanos said. "Of course, especially to give us that lead on the second one."

Though Castellanos hadn't homered since Aug. 27 last season, he had seemed to improve on some of the other struggles that marred his debut season with the Phils. Entering Saturday's game, his chase rate was just 32.2 percent, down from a career-worst 39.6 percent last season. Castellanos was also swinging at 48.8 percent of pitches overall, the lowest rate in his career.

So while he had yet to homer, Castellanos began the day with an MLB-leading nine doubles -- he added his 10th in the eighth inning while narrowly missing out on a three-homer game -- and 10 walks in 90 plate appearances. He walked just 29 times in 558 plate appearances last year.

“I would wipe last year from the books as far as I'm concerned," Thomson said before the game. "Just start over."

Castellanos, however, has a bit of a different approach.

"On the surface, that could seem like a good idea, but for me, I learned so many lessons about myself last year," said Castellanos, who hit just 13 home runs and had a career-low .694 OPS in 2022 after hitting a career-high 34 homers with the Reds in '21. "Everything that I learned last year could be just as valuable as the '21 season I had -- maybe not statistically, but every lesson is valuable in some way."

And it's not like Castellanos hasn't been helping the club in just about every other aspect this season.

Along with his league-leading 10 doubles, Castellanos has an MLB-best five outfield assists. On Friday night, he induced a bases-loaded balk by dancing off third base far enough to force Rockies starter Noah Davis into a mistake. That came just a couple weeks after Castellanos triggered another game-altering rally by distracting Reds closer Alexis Díaz enough to knock him off his game.

"I just want to do my job, man. I really have grown fond of everybody in this clubhouse, the organization in general," Castellanos said. "So anything that I can do on either side of the ball, even conversations that have nothing to do with baseball, to give positive energy to the Phillies and to get as many wins as possible -- whatever it may be, I'm down for.”

But neither Castellanos nor the Phillies would mind him hitting a few more home runs -- and it may be as simple as just getting the ball in the air.

While Castellanos has demonstrated improved patience at the plate, he entered Saturday with a ground-ball rate of 60.4 percent. That not only exceeds last year's career high of 42.9 percent, but it was also the fifth-highest among 182 qualified hitters.

Given that Castellanos’ ground-ball rate is typically lower than the league average, however, Thomson chalked that up to nothing more than a “small sample size” -- and Castellanos hitting three of four balls hard in the air Saturday may back that up.

Meanwhile, Castellanos’ multihomer game marked the 10th of his career, but his first since Sept. 1, 2021, with the Reds. It’s something he hadn’t done in 174 previous games (including the postseason) since signing a five-year, $100 million deal with Philadelphia after the ‘21 season.

The last time Castellanos had a two-homer game, however, it kicked off a stretch in which he hit 10 home runs in 26 games.

A sign of things to come perhaps?

“Those guys know they come in bunches,” Thomson said. “Once you get that first one, it tends to relax you a little bit.”