In his professional career, Nick Castellanos had never gone this long without hitting a home run, but Phillies manager Rob Thomson wasn’t exactly in a panic.

At Citizens Bank Park on Saturday morning, Thomson stated, “Just based on the history, for him, he’s hit home runs in the past and I expect him to do it again.”

A few hours later, Castellanos smashed not one, not two, but two home runs, his first multihomer game as a Phillie and his first two of the season, to help his team defeat the Rockies 4-3. Castellanos launched the game-winning homer to break a 3-3 tie in the sixth inning after opening the scoring with a solo shot in the second inning.

That ended his career’s worst home run drought, which had lasted 48 games (including the postseason).

It felt fantastic, Castellanos said. Naturally, particularly to give us the advantage on the second one.

Despite the fact that Castellanos hadn’t hit a home run since August 27 of last season, he had made progress in some of the other areas that had plagued his first season with the Phillies. His chase percentage has dropped from a career-worst 39.6 percent last season to just 32.2 percent going into the game on Saturday. Additionally, Castellanos was swinging at just 48.8% of pitches overall, the lowest percentage of his career.

Castellanos started the day with an MLB-best nine doubles, 10 walks, and 90 plate appearances despite the fact that he had not yet hit a home run. He added his 10th double in the eighth inning, narrowly missing a game with three home runs. In 558 at-bats, he only walked 29 times last season.

Before the game, Thomson declared, “I would erase last year from the books as far as I’m concerned.” Just begin again.

“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 in 2022 after hitting a career-high 34 with the Reds in ’21 and had a.694 OPS. “Every lesson I learned last year is valuable in some way, even if it’s not statistically as valuable as the season I had in ’21,” he said.

And it’s not like Castellanos hasn’t benefited the team this season in just about every other way.

Castellanos has an MLB-best five outfield assists in addition to his 10 doubles, which are the most in the league. He caused Rockies starter Noah Davis to blunder on Friday night by dancing off third base far enough to prompt a bases-loaded baulk. That occurred not long after Castellanos instigated another game-changing rally by demoralising Reds closer Alexis Daz with enough distraction to throw him off his game.

“Man, all I want to do is my job. I’ve grown to genuinely like everyone in this clubhouse and the organisation as a whole,” Castellanos added. Therefore, everything I can do to support the Phillies and help them win as many games as possible, on either side of the ball, even in conversations unrelated to baseball, I’m up for.

However, Castellanos and the Phillies would not object if he hit a couple more home runs. All he needs to do is get the ball in the air.

Castellanos had a 60.4 percent ground-ball percentage as of Saturday, while showing increased patience at the plate. That not only surpassed the 42.9 percent career record set previous year, but it also ranked seventh out of 182 qualified batters.

Thomson attributed that to nothing more than a “small sample size” given that Castellanos’ ground-ball rate is normally lower than the league average, but the fact that Castellanos hit three of his four balls hard in the air on Saturday may support that.

The 10-homer game for Castellanos was his first with the Reds since September 1, 2021, though it was his first overall. Since signing a five-year, $100 million contract with Philadelphia after the ’21 season, he hadn’t done it in 174 prior games (including the postseason).

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