Adrian Del Castillo hit the winning home run in just his second major league game, blasting the first pitch of the ninth inning to give the Arizona Diamondbacks a 3-2 win over the Philadelphia Phillies on Friday night.
The Phillies came back from a 2-0 deficit, tying the game in the eighth inning with a two-out RBI double from Johan Rojas, which scored Nick Castellanos from first base.
This set up Del Castillo’s moment in the ninth inning. He took a 97 mph fastball from Jeff Hoffman (3-2) and hit it deep into the right-field seats for his first big league homer. His teammates rushed to greet him at home plate as a crowd of nearly 38,000 cheered.
“Goosebumps, honestly,” Del Castillo said. “Straight up goosebumps. It was sick. I don’t even know how to describe it.”
Arizona’s Ryne Nelson pitched 7 1/3 excellent innings, allowing just three hits and two runs, with one walk and nine strikeouts.
Del Castillo ended the game with three hits and two RBIs. He was called up this week after starting catcher Gabriel Moreno suffered a groin injury in Cleveland. In 100 games with Triple-A Reno this season, Del Castillo hit .319 with 24 home runs and 70 RBIs.
“You couldn’t ask for any greater moment for a young player,” D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said. “I get so excited for the players coming up from player development. I felt like I was 18 years old again for a few minutes.”
Justin Martinez (5-3) pitched the ninth inning and earned the win, marking the D-backs’ seventh walk-off victory of the year.
The Diamondbacks took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Del Castillo hit a looping RBI single to left-center. Joc Pederson extended the lead to 2-0 in the third inning with a solo home run to right field, his 19th of the season.
Meanwhile, Nelson had a great game, 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.
