PHOENIX — Adrian Del Castillo hit the winning homer in just his second game in the majors, hammering the first pitch of the ninth inning to give the Arizona Diamondbacks a 3-2 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Friday night.
He is the first player in D-backs history to hit a walk-off blast for his first career home run, and first catcher whose first homer was a walk-off since Will Smith in 2019.
The Phillies rallied from a 2-0 deficit, tying it in the eighth on a two-out RBI double from Johan Rojas that scored a hustling Nick Castellanos from first.
That set up Del Castillo’s ninth-inning heroics. He jumped all over a 97 mph fastball from Jeff Hoffman (3-2), launching it deep into the right-field seats. He was mobbed at home plate by his teammates while a crowd of nearly 38,000 roared.
Welcome to the big leagues, kid.
“Goosebumps, honestly,” Del Castillo said. “Straight up goosebumps. It was sick. I don’t even know how to describe it.”
Arizona’s Ryne Nelson threw 7⅓ brilliant innings, giving up just three hits and two runs, walking one and striking out nine.
Del Castillo finished with three hits and two RBIs. He was called up this week after starting catcher Gabriel Moreno went down with a groin injury in Cleveland. In 100 games this season for Triple-A Reno, Del Castillo hit .319 with 24 homers and 70 RBIs.
“You couldn’t ask for any greater moment for a young player,” D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said. “I get so excited for the players coming up from player development. I felt like I was 18 years old again for a few minutes.”
Justin Martinez (5-3) pitched the ninth, getting the victory with the D-backs’ seventh walk-off win of the year.
ESPN Stats & Information and The Associated Press contributed to this report.