Nick Castellanos in rare company with 162 starts

Nick Castellanos in rare company with 162 starts originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

WASHINGTON — Rob Thomson sat Bryce Harper and J.T. Realmuto in the regular-season finale but a handful of Phillies regulars started the game Sunday against the Nationals, including the right fielder who’s been out there for all 162.

Nick Castellanos made his 162nd start, the first Phillie to do so since Jimmy Rollins in 2007. Freddy Galvis had been the most recent Phillie to play all 162 but he didn’t start them all.

Castellanos was the DH in five games and the right fielder for 157. He and Rollins are the only two Phillies over the last 42 seasons to start all 162. Before them, it was Pete Rose.

“It’s great. You don’t see it very much these days,” Thomson said. “It goes to his sort of old-school thought process. It’s something he wanted to do and I’m really proud of him.”

Thomson and Castellanos discussed his potentially playing 162 games on the opening weekend of the season and it became more realistic as the summer wore on. Kyle Schwarber was the only other Phillie to reach 150.

Castellanos brought a nine-game hitting streak into Sunday. He’s gone 15-for-32 (.469) over that span with three doubles, a triple, two homers and five RBI.

He’s hit safely in 13 of his last 14 games and September has been his best month at .292/.357/.494.

Castellanos started incredibly slowly this season. He was hitting .185 through 35 games with two home runs and no doubles.

But since May 4, a stretch of 128 games representing nearly 80% of the season, Castellanos has hit .273 with 30 doubles, 21 homers and an .804 OPS.

“He’s gotten better as the season’s gone on, it’s not like at the end here he’s sucking wind,” Thomson said. “He’s thriving.”

They just need him to keep it up for another month. Castellanos was at his very best in the NLDS last October, hitting .467 with four home runs, only to go 1-for-24 with 11 strikeouts in the NLCS.