Nick Castellanos dropped his bat with authority and walked down the first base line with conviction like he knew. And he knew. Clear of the bullpen, 428 feet to a shallower part of the ballpark, he knew. And he’d seen them before: 248 of them, to be exact, over the last 13 years. He knows how they look.
Had it been 15 feet shorter, or maybe regardless, you’d understand if he didn’t know. Distance and longevity were on his side. Recency wasn’t.
Castellanos’ solo homer in the sixth inning of the Phillies’ series-splitting win in Washington on Sunday was his first big fly in 15 days, his sixth since the start of July.