Nick Castellanos airs frustration after Phillies’ heartbreaking NLCS Game 7 loss vs. Diamondbacks
The Philadelphia Phillies made a deep run to the World Series in the 2022 MLB Playoffs as a Wild Card team, and they were looking to go a step further this season. They got things started off with a sweep against the Miami Marlins in the Wild Card round, and they followed that up by taking out the best team in baseball, the Atlanta Braves, in the NLDS. That win set the Phillies up with a series against the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NLCS. Philadelphia jumped out to a 2-0 series lead to get comfortable in the driver's seat, but the series was far from over at that point.
When the NLCS shifted back over to Arizona for games 3-5, the Phillies were in complete control. However, the Diamondbacks weren't done battling, and they quickly evened the series with two wins on their home turf. Still, Philadelphia won game five to take a 3-2 series lead, meaning the Diamondbacks would have to win two in a row in Philadelphia, where the Phillies hadn't lost all postseason. It seemed like a near impossible task for Arizona, but against all odds, they got the job done, and they are going to the World Series to take on the Texas Rangers.
Phillies' Nick Castellanos speaks out
While this season had a lot of good moments for the Phillies, they didn't meet their ultimate goal of winning the World Series. Nick Castellanos spoke after the game about the feeling he currently has, and he's disappointed.
“We underachieved as a team,” Nick Castellanos said, according to a tweet from Corey Seidman. “It's a frustrating way for the season to end. The potential of this team is so much greater than going home before the World Series. Last year when we lost game six, obviously we were disappointed because we didn't win the whole thing, but there was a lot of ‘alright, well we got here, now we can build off of that.' So knowing how we feel about this team and coming up short from what we did the year previous is a disgusting feeling.”
It's always hard for a team to go down earlier than where they were the previous season. It felt like the Phillies were going to get back to the World Series after going up 2-0 in the NLCS, and to see them come up short was surprising. The team definitely feels like they are better than this result, and they will have to wait a long time before they can attempt to get back there. It's going to be a long offseason in Philadelphia.
