Phillies answer Mets ninth-inning magic with walk-off to Nick Castellanos to tie NLDS

PHILADELPHIA – Another nearly improbable Mets win turned into a gut punch Sunday night.

Short of a miracle, the Mets couldn't hold on in the bottom of the ninth after Mark Vientos' second homer of the game a half-inning earlier kept his team's dream of going to Queens within a win of reaching the NLCS.

But Tylor Magill surrendered a walk-off RBI single to Nick Castellanos in the bottom of the inning, sending the Mets to a 7-6 loss to the Phillies in Game 2 of the NLDS at Citizens Bank Park.

Magill, who walked Trea Turner and Bryce Harper, entered the eighth game after the Edwin Diaz implosion.

This Mets' great wild card surge into the postseason and early success has come no matter which version of Diaz shows up on any given day or inning.

It was Diaz in the eighth inning last Monday in Atlanta before going begging for the ninth ball and closing the door on catapulting the Mets into the playoffs. There was Diaz who shut down the Brewers three nights later and allowed the Mets to rally to win the NL Wild Card Series.

And then there was Sunday night, when it came full circle for the right-hander. Diaz, after getting the final out in the seventh inning and starting in the eighth, cracked again.

Bryson Stott's two-run triple against Diaz was the backbreaker.

The Phillies' go-ahead rally began with Harper's one-out walk against Diaz in the eighth, followed by a 98 mph fastball from Castellanos that put runners on the corners. Stott, on the sixth pitch of his at-bat, hammered a slider into the right-field corner for a two-run triple that put the Mets in a 5-4 hole. Diaz singled for Magill and JT Realmuto's RBI fielder's choice brought in the insurance run.

But after Francisco Lindor's single in the ninth, Vientos tied it 6-6 against Matt Strahm.

After Luis Severino allowed back-to-back homers to Harper and Castellanos in the sixth to take a 3-0 lead, Brandon Nimmo restored the lead for the Mets with a solo blast in the seventh.

Severino's six-inning finish (91 pitches) included three earned runs on six hits with seven strikeouts. It was the second straight start this postseason in which the right-hander surrendered three earned runs in six innings (also in Game 1 of Tuesday's NL wild card series at Milwaukee).

Vientos hit a two-run homer off Christopher Sanchez in the third for the first run of the game. Francisco Lindor singled in the inning before Vientos went to the opposite field, just clearing the fence for his first career follow-up homer.

A throwing error by Starling Mart in the third allowed Johan Rojas to advance to second on Kyle Schwarber's fly out. Rojas stole third but was stranded. Turner stole second and third in the first inning for the Phillies before Severino struck out Harper and retired Castellanos.

Stott singled with two outs in the fourth and Francisco Alvarez threw out trying to steal second.

Pete Alonso led off the sixth inning with a homer against Jose Ruiz that extended the Mets lead to 3-0. The blast saved the Mets' season with his ninth-inning homer Thursday in Milwaukee — his second in three games.

The lefty Sanchez pitched five innings and allowed two earned runs on five hits and a walk with five strikeouts.

Severino got stumped in the sixth, throwing a 99 mph fastball that Harper crushed for a two-run homer to pull the Phillies within 3-2. The next batter, Castellanos, soared 425 feet into the strike zone for a homer to left-center that tied the game.

Nimmo's homer brought two outs in the seventh after Orion Carkering struck out Lindor and Vientos to start the frame.

Jose Batto struck out Realmuto in the seventh and allowed a two-out single to Rojas before Diaz entered to hit Schwarber.