Philadelphia Phillies star outfielder Nick Castellanos has certainly been known for his colorful sound bites over the years. For someone who puts everything into the game he loves, it’s no wonder that whenever he has the chance to express his emotions and feelings about baseball, he always does it in the best way possible.
Castellanos was at it once again on Saturday after he was mobbed by his teammates for delivering the game-winning walk-off hit, helping the Phillies defeat the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-3. In the live postgame interview, Tom McCarthy asked Castellanos how the celebration felt after such a long day at the ballpark.
“That felt good. We needed that. S**t, I needed that. It was a beautiful moment,” Castellanos said.
'We needed that, I needed that!' — Nick Castellanos fired up after game-winning hit 🔥💦 pic.twitter.com/I1IhOXbVBy
— NBC Sports Philadelphia (@NBCSPhilly) April 13, 2024
Castellanos really needed that. The two-time All-Star is off to a rough start to his 2024 campaign. He entered Saturday’s game with only eight hits, with not one of them for extra bases. In addition to that, he had only three RBI and 14 strikeouts in 50 at-bats. To say he was struggling just a bit is certainly an understatement.
Castellanos dropped another NSFW soundbite earlier in the week
Castellanos' latest potty mouth incident comes after he recently gave an NSFW honest critique of his slow start.
Per The Athletic's Matt Gelb, Castellanos acknowledged that he hasn’t been playing up to his usual standards (subscription required) in his less-than-stellar start to the season. Following a hitting session with Phillies first base coach Paco Figueroa, Castellanos had two words to summarize how he really felt about his slump, “It’s s****y.”
“I think that I put too much stress on my chase percentages,” Castellanos said, per Gelb. “Wanting so much to just swing at good pitches that I feel like I lost the whippiness and the looseness that I had attacking the ball. So, just grinding to get that back.”
But it hasn’t been all Castellanos, as many of his teammates have also struggled offensively out of the gate, leading to their current 8-8 record. As a team, the Phillies currently rank in the bottom third of the majors in batting average (.234), OPS (.663) and RBI (55), and sit in 19th with 124 hits.
Nevertheless, Saturday's comeback victory certainly serves as a first step in the right direction for both Castellanos and the Phillies. Castellanos promptly followed it up with another hit on Sunday to finally raise his average close to the Mendoza Line. Hopefully, by finally delivering for his team, he can quickly turn things around to help the team succeed once again.