ST. LOUIS -- Phillies right fielder Nick Castellanos pursued a fly ball into the right-field corner in the first inning on Saturday afternoon at Busch Stadium, but he thought he had no chance to catch it.
Then it tailed back into play.
¡°I started running after it a little bit like a courtesy run,¡± Castellanos said following a 4-1 victory over the Cardinals. ¡°And then I was like, ¡®Oh, man, that¡¯s going to stay in fair territory.¡¯ Then I caught it.¡±
A young Phillies fan wearing a powder-blue Mike Schmidt jersey stood up and offered his hand to Castellanos.
¡°He was just like, ¡®Let¡¯s go! Yeah!¡¯¡± Castellanos said. ¡°Just excited.¡±
Castellanos gave the fan a high five, then offered a fist bump.
Why?
¡°Just to give him a little bit more love,¡± he said. ¡°You know?¡±
The boy enthusiastically accepted. Castellanos tossed him the ball.
¡°We¡¯re just all out here having a good time,¡± he said.
Castellanos went 3-for-4 with two doubles and two RBIs on Saturday. He is batting .308 with two home runs, nine RBIs and an .876 OPS, which includes five strikeouts in Thursday night¡¯s 11-inning loss to the Braves.
Castellanos was the 12th player in Phillies history to strike out five times in a game, according to Baseball Reference.
¡°If you take out that one night in Atlanta, I just feel like I¡¯ve controlled my at-bats decently for the most part,¡± he said.
Castellanos drove a two-out double to left-center field in the first inning to score Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber to give the Phillies a 2-0 lead.
¡°It reassures that I¡¯m in a good spot,¡± Castellanos said about hitting the ball to left-center. ¡°I really like my work that I¡¯m doing with [Phillies hitting coaches]. Just stay there.¡±