Nick Castellanos watched from right field as Orion Kerkering’s ill-advised throw home sailed over catcher J.T. Realmuto to end the Phillies’ season.
Castellanos saw the Dodgers pour out of the third-base dugout, sprinting past a stunned Kerkering to swarm Andy Pages at first base to celebrate their 2-1 walk-off National League Division Series-clinching win.
Then, Castellanos broke into a sprint of his own. He rushed past the euphoric Dodgers on the infield dirt to get to a visibly emotional Kerkering.
“That’s second nature. That’s instinct,” Castellanos said. “I understand what he’s feeling. Not the exact emotions, but I can see them. I didn’t even have to think twice about it, that’s where I needed to run to.”
Realmuto was the first to get to Kerkering as he stood motionless with his head dropped and his hands on his knees as the NLCS-bound Dodgers stormed past him.
Castellanos was the second.
“I just told him to keep his head up,” Castellanos said. “And I wanted to be next to him while he walked off the field, just so he knows he’s not alone in that moment.”
The trio of Kerkering, Castellanos and Realmuto walked together to the first-base dugout, where manager Rob Thomson was waiting on the top step. Thomson put an arm around Kerkering and shared a brief message for the distraught reliever before patting him on the chest.
“Just keep his head up,” Thomson said when asked what he said to Kerkering in those six seconds. “He just got caught up in the moment a little bit. … I feel for him because he’s putting it all on his shoulders. But we win as a team and we lose as a team.”
That was the message Kerkering received over and over from teammates in the wake of a stunning end to a season that began with a World Series-or-bust mentality.
“It means a lot,” said Kerkering, who — with his eyes still swollen — answered every question about the play and the aftermath. “It shows they care a lot. Just means everything, for sure.”
Asked what else his teammates had told him, Kerkering said: “Just keep your head up. It’s an honest mistake. It’s baseball. [Stuff] happens. Just keep your head up, you’ll be good for a long time to come. Stuff like it’s not my fault kind of — had opportunities to score. Just keep your head up.”
Nobody on the Phillies could relate directly to what Kerkering was going through in that moment. It was, after all, just the second postseason series to end on a walk-off error. (The other came in the 2016 ALDS when the Blue Jays defeated the Rangers on an errant throw to first on a potential inning-ending double play.)
That said, Castellanos may understand better than most. He made the final out of the 2022 World Series by flying out in foul territory down the right-field line. Castellanos had just reached first base when then-Astros right fielder Kyle Tucker corralled the ball to seal the 4-1 title-clinching victory.
Castellanos, much like Kerkering on Thursday night, had to navigate his way through a raucous on-field celebration.
Also like Kerkering, Castellanos didn’t have to do it alone.
“When I made the last out in ’22 of the World Series, Paco waited for me to walk off the field,” Castellanos said of first-base coach Paco Figueroa. “And I thought that was awesome.”
Kyle Schwarber can relate, too. It was eight years ago to the day that Schwarber made not one, but two errors on the same play in a postseason game. Locked in a scoreless tie with two outs in the sixth inning of a pivotal NLDS Game 3, Schwarber — playing left field for the Cubs at the time — flat-out dropped a routine fly ball off the bat off Daniel Murphy.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, Schwarber then kicked the ball away from himself as he tried to pick it up. Instead of an inning-ending flyout, Murphy ended up at third base on the play, then scored one batter later.
“One play shouldn’t define someone’s career. I’ve had tons of failure in my life, my career,” Schwarber said. “There are times where — hell, I’ve made a double error in a playoff game. That’s just the way it is. You have to learn from it, you have to be better for it. I don’t think that’s going to define Kerk’s career at all.”
Kerkering plans to do exactly that.
“Hopefully it’s the start of a long career,” Kerkering said. “Just keep it in the back of my head that this really [expletive] sucks right now, but hopefully, keep pushing and get over this hump and keep pushing.”
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