Castellanos leads Phils' rally by ... waving at the pitcher?!

PHILADELPHIA -- Nick Castellanos did all he could in the ninth inning to ignite a game-winning rally for the Phillies in Saturday afternoon's 3-2 walk-off victory over the Reds at Citizens Bank Park.

He walked. He ran. He clapped. He even danced -- and then he waved.

Albeit a bit unconventional, Castellanos' antics on the basepaths helped trigger a three-run rally for a Phillies offense that had been completely stifled through eight innings. Reds starter Nick Lodolo struck out 12 batters over seven scoreless frames before Alexis Díaz struck out the side in the eighth.

But trailing by two to open the ninth, Castellanos worked a seven-pitch walk against Díaz. Castellanos then advanced to second on a wild pitch and went to third on an Alec Bohm single -- and that's when the real fun began.

With left-handed hitter Brandon Marsh at the plate and runners on the corners with no outs, the Reds opted to shift third baseman Spencer Steer much farther off the bag than usual. Castellanos took that as an invitation to skip his way down the third-base line -- like, really far down the line.

"I was going to get as much as I was allowed to get. It was far," Castellanos said. "I don't know if I was ever that far [before]. At one point, I was like, 'I'm pretty close to home right now.'"

Díaz ignored Castellanos early in the count, but with the Phillies' right fielder creeping closer and closer to home, the Reds' closer finally stepped off before a 2-2 pitch and feigned sprinting in Castellanos' direction.

Castellanos’ response?

"I waved at him," Castellanos said with a smile. "You know, just a friendly hello."

Díaz, however, was in no mood to return the pleasantries.

"I stepped off right there because he was getting very close to home plate," Díaz said through a translator. "I knew I had to step off and see if we had a chance to make a play. After that, I just kept my focus and went on with that at-bat."

Díaz's next pitch missed badly to fill the count. Marsh roped the 3-2 offering into right field for an RBI single that pulled the Phils within one -- and ended Díaz's day.

Cincinnati turned to Ian Gibaut to try to halt the rally, but a sellout crowd that had little to cheer about for 8 1/3 innings had finally come alive at Citizens Bank Park. Edmundo Sosa tied the game with a sacrifice fly on Gibaut's first pitch, then Marsh quickly swiped second base to put the potential winning run in scoring position for Bryson Stott.

Though there was no dancing or waving this time around, the drama built during a lengthy battle before Stott grounded the seventh pitch of the at-bat into right field for the second walk-off hit of his career.

"Everyone was standing and it was so loud -- it kind of felt like October again," Stott said. "Just the way they showed up and got into the game -- it doesn't help the pitcher at all. You saw him step off and looked like he was going to run at Nick. I think he was just trying to calm things down.

"But here, I don't think that really works."

Saturday's rally lacked the big home run that became a staple of so many iconic moments last October. Instead, the three-run ninth-inning comeback featured a walk, three singles, a sacrifice fly and a stolen base.

With sluggers Bryce Harper, Rhys Hoskins and Darick Hall on the injured list, the Phillies will likely need to string together innings like that one more so than last season.

"There's plenty of ways to win games other than just hitting the ball out of the park," Castellanos said. " ... We just had to find a way -- any way -- that we could to get it done. Sometimes, you have to play small ball, work a walk and take your hits."

Not to mention dance 60 feet down the third-base line to get the pitcher’s attention, all while 44,526 screaming fans encourage Castellanos to take the final 30 feet on his own.

The idea of stealing home admittedly crossed his mind, but it just didn’t make sense in this specific game situation.

“If my run was the tying run or the winning run,” Castellanos said, “I would have thought long and hard about it.”

Maybe next time.