Adrian Del Castillo belted the first pitch of the bottom of the ninth inning over the wall in right to give the Arizona Diamondbacks a dramatic 3-2 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Friday night in Phoenix.
Del Castillo had three hits and two RBIs in his second major league game, including the winning 416-foot blast off a fastball from Philadelphia’s Jeff Hoffman (3-2).
He became the first player in Diamondbacks history to have his first career homer be a walk-off shot.
Del Castillo’s heroics gave Arizona its fifth victory in six games. The Diamondbacks are 15-5 since the All-Star break.
Joc Pederson also homered for the Diamondbacks, who evened the rematch of last season’s National League Championship Series at 1-1 with two games remaining.
Bryce Harper homered for the Phillies, who lost for just the second time in six games. Alec Bohm and Johan Rojas each had two hits, with Rojas’ second hit being a game-tying double in the eighth.
Arizona’s Justin Martinez (5-2) gave up one hit in a scoreless ninth.
Diamondbacks starter Ryne Nelson was charged with two runs and three hits over 7 1/3 innings. He matched his career high with nine strikeouts and walked one.
Nelson was removed after walking Nick Castellanos with one out in the eighth. A.J. Puk entered and struck out pinch hitter Edmundo Sosa before Rojas doubled over the head of Arizona left fielder Jake McCarthy. Castellanos came around to score with his left hand swiping the plate as he slid.
Puk then struck out Kyle Schwarber to end the inning.
Philadelphia’s Zack Wheeler gave up two runs and seven hits over six innings. He struck out eight and walked two.
Arizona bunched together three hits off Wheeler in the first inning.
Corbin Carroll led off with a single and he advanced to third on Josh Bell’s two-out single. Del Castillo followed with a run-scoring single to drive in Carroll.
The Diamondbacks took a 2-0 lead in the third on Pederson’s homer to right. Pederson jumped all over Wheeler’s fastball for his 19th of the season.
Philadelphia got on the board with one out in the seventh when Harper took a fastball the other way and narrowly got it over the wall in left for his 26th homer of the season.
–Field Level Media
