Diamondbacks Crush Phillies Dreams with Electrifying Walk-Off Home Run

Adrian Del Castillo hit the first pitch of the ninth inning into the right field bleachers to give the D-backs a win over the Phillies on Friday night.

Arizona’s Ryne Nelson threw 7 1/3 brilliant innings, giving up just three hits and two runs, walking one and striking out nine.

The Phillies rallied from a 2-0 deficit, tying it in the eighth on a two-out RBI double from Johan Rojas that scored a hustling Nick Castellanos from first.

That set up Del Castillo’s ninth-inning heroics. He jumped all over a 97 mph fastball from Jeff Hoffman, launching it deep into the right-field seats for his first big league homer. Del Castillo was called up this week after starting catcher Gabriel Moreno went down with a groin injury in Cleveland.

Del Castillo finished with three hits and two RBIs. In 100 games this season for Triple-A Reno, he hit .319 with 24 homers and 70 RBIs.

Justin Martinez pitched the ninth, getting the victory with the D-backs’ seventh walk-off win of the year.

The Diamondbacks took a 1-0 lead in the first when Del Castillo hit a looping RBI single to left center. Joc Pederson made it 2-0 in the third with a solo homer to right, which was his 19th long ball of the season.

Meanwhile, Nelson put on quite a display of strike throwing, retiring the first 12 batters he faced and throwing first-pitch strikes to the first 17 batters. At one point in the sixth inning, he had thrown 51 strikes and just 10 balls.

Bryce Harper finally got to Nelson in the seventh, driving an opposite field homer to left field for his 26th homer of the year to cut it to 2-1.

Philadelphia’s Zack Wheeler gave up two runs on seven hits over six innings. The right-hander walked two and struck out eight.

Making Moves

Diamondbacks called up RHP Scott McGough and optioned RHP Slade Cecconi to Triple-A Reno.

Phillies placed OF Austin Hays (hamstring) on the 10-day IL and optioned LHP Kolby Allard to Triple-A Lehigh Valley. OF Cal Stevenson and RHP Max Lazar were promoted from Triple-A. 1B Darick Hall and RHP Max Castillo were designated for assignment.

Up Next

The D-backs will start RHP Zac Gallen (9-5, 3.75 ERA) on Saturday night. The Phillies counter with RHP Aaron Nola (11-5, 3.54 ERA).

Arizona Sports

The city of Phoenix is home to four major professional sports league teams: The NFL’s Arizona Cardinals, NBA’s Phoenix Suns, WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury, and MLB’s Arizona Diamondbacks.

The Cardinals have made State Farm Stadium in Glendale their home turf, and the Footprint Center in downtown Phoenix is home to both the Suns and the Mercury. The Indoor Football League’s Arizona Rattlers play at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale.

Phoenix also has a soccer team with the USL’s Phoenix Rising FC, who play at Phoenix Rising FC Stadium in Phoenix.

The Valley hosts multiple major sporting events every year, including college football’s Fiesta Bowl and Guaranteed Rate Bowl; the PGA Tour’s highest-attended event, the WM Phoenix Open; NASCAR events each spring and fall, including Championship Weekend in November; and Cactus League Spring Training for 15 Major League Baseball franchises.