Adrian Del Castillo’s walk-off blast caps Diamondbacks thrilling 3-2 win over Phillies

Adrian Del Castillo needed only one pitch in the ninth inning to launch his first career home run. He turned around a 97 MPH fastball in the middle of the zone from All-Star reliever Jeff Hoffman for his first career walk-off homer to defeat the Phillies 3-2 at Chase Field.

“It was a special moment for him, he hits his first major league home run,” said Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo on the postgame coverage on Dbacks TV. “It’s a walk-off, in a pennant race, it doesn’t get any better. It’s what you dream about as a kid, I couldn’t help but get caught up in the emotion of it. They deserve to celebrate, it’s a big win after a tough loss yesterday, and we just flipped everything with one swing of the bat.”

Del Castillo has looked impressive in his first two major league games, collecting three hits and three RBI while playing solid catcher defense. In addition to his strong offensive game, he called a great game with Ryne Nelson on the mound. He’s seamlessly fit in while trying to replace injured starter Gabriel Moreno, who is expected to miss weeks with a groin strain.

“It’s awesome, honestly,” said Del Castillo on the Dbacks TV postgame coverage. “We just got to keep winning. This team’s hot, to come in here with this team being hot, I just have to be myself.”

If the Diamondbacks are going to make any decisions with their rotation, Nelson certainly has forced their hand to keep him in the rotation. The right-hander was downright dominant against the Philadelphia Phillies, allowing two runs on three hits, one walk, and nine strikeouts over 7 1/3 innings. Nelson spoke about his excellent start on the postgame coverage on Dbacks TV.

“I think the big thing is getting ahead, and jumping ahead in the counts. I feel like fastball location was good, and that was key to getting ahead and being able to throw some cutters, throw some sliders in there. No curveballs and a couple changeups, but I think the usage of them was in the right spots. Adrian did a super good job behind the dish today, we were on the same page the whole night.”

It started with his ability to drive the fastball around the edges of the zone. 66 of his 97 pitches were either four-seamers or cutters. He was aggressive early in the count, jumping ahead of hitters and setting up his entire arsenal. The cutter was a very effective pitch, showing much more sweeping movement than usual. Nelson got 13 whiffs between the four-seamer, cutter, and slider.

The big moment in Nelson’s start came in the top of the fifth. After a blooper that fell in and was inadvertently kicked by Corbin Carroll for a double that broke up a perfecto bid, he proceeded to dominate the next three hitters with upper 90s fastballs and then finished off Castellanos with a slider. That felt like a coming of age moment for a talented pitcher yet to put things together at the big league level until recently.

With Merrill Kelly set to come off the injured list, Nelson has made his case to stay. Since the start of July, he has pitched to a 2.90 ERA with 49 strikeouts and 11 walks over 49 2/3 innings. Nelson credits being in the best spot he’s ever been mechanically and developing the right mentality to win swing counts to get ahead of hitters.

The Diamondbacks faced a tough customer on the mound in Zack Wheeler. While Arizona did an excellent job of grinding him down during the game, he held them to just two runs over six innings. They scratched across two early runs, the first coming on Del Castillo’s first RBI hit of the night. Joc Pederson, who entered the game 2-for-19 against Wheeler, connected on a home run in the third to make it 2-0.

For a while, it looked like two runs was going to be enough. However, the Phillies’ high-powered offense continued to peck away at the lead. Bryce Harper took a fastball down and out over the plate and lifted a fly ball that just got over the fence to cut the lead in half. Following a scoreless seventh, Nelson came out again for the eighth. After retiring J.T. Realmuto, he lost Nick Castellanos after eight pitches to put the tying run on base. That spelled the end of Nelson’s night, as he left the field to a standing ovation.

A.J. Puk came in to get the final two outs of the eighth. He struck out pinch hitter Edmundo Sosa and jumped ahead of Johan Rojas, but grooved a fastball to the Phillies’ speedy center fielder that he banged off the left field wall to tie the game. Puk rang up Schwarber on a slider to limit the damage.

Justin Martinez got another ninth inning assignment, this time to protect a 2-2 tie to give his team a chance to win in the bottom half. He pitched around a two-out single by Alec Bohm, striking out Bryce Harper on the splitter. He became the winning pitcher after Del Castillo’s winning home run.