Phillies give Mets a taste of their own medicine to change complexion of NLDS

Phillies give Mets a taste of their own medicine to change complexion of NLDS originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The Mets have spent all week coming back on teams in the eighth and ninth innings with their season on the line.

Now they know how it feels.

The Phillies took the lead in the bottom of the eighth, blew it in the top of the ninth and walked off on Nick Castellanos’ two-out single to even the NLDS at a game apiece.

Instead of heading to Citi Field needing three consecutive wins to advance, the Phillies need only a split in Games 3 and 4 in New York to bring the series back to Citizens Bank Park.

You’ll rarely find more late-inning drama than in this one.

The Phillies were five outs away from dropping each of the first two games of the NLDS at home when Bryson Stott tripled in two runs to put them ahead. He scored on a J.T. Realmuto single for insurance and it looked like that would do it but the Phils’ bullpen faltered again, with Matt Strahm allowing a game-tying two-run homer to budding Phillie-killer Mark Vientos with one out in the ninth.

It came a day after Strahm and Jeff Hoffman combined to allow six runs in a game-altering eighth inning. Orion Kerkering also allowed a go-ahead homer to Brandon Nimmo in the seventh Sunday before Stott came through. Hoffman was able to finish off the ninth Sunday and earned the win.

The Phils trailed by three runs with two outs in the bottom of the sixth when they tied it up with a pair of loud swings from Bryce Harper and Castellanos. Harper woke up the crowd of 45,679 with a two-out, two-run blast off the ivy wall in center and Castellanos followed by pounding a Luis Severino fastball over the middle.

After Nimmo gave the Mets a lead in the top of the seventh, they turned to closer Edwin Diaz with two outs in the bottom half. He struck out Kyle Schwarber to end the seventh and Trea Turner to begin the eighth before the Phils rallied.

Diaz gave Harper nothing to hit in a four-pitch walk. Castellanos, whose homer tied the game two innings earlier, followed with an opposite-field single and Stott plated them both with a full-count triple.

Diaz is the most overpowering pitcher the Mets have to offer and this was a big-time confidence-builder for the Phillies, the inverse of what happened in Game 1 to their top two relievers, Hoffman and Strahm.

The duality of Castellanos was on display all in one afternoon. He took two ugly swings on sliders in the dirt in his second at-bat and received a Bronx cheer after laying off the next pitch, which bounced. He shook his head in frustration and ended the at-bat with a groundout.

Then he got a mistake from Severino in the sixth and didn’t miss it. The opposite-field single off Diaz was every bit as important. The ninth-inning single might have saved their season.