CHICAGO — Although Rob Thomson will manage the National League All-Stars, he won’t have a say over which players are on the team. A few years ago, MLB changed the selection process, taking it out of the All-Star managers’ hands.
“I’d rather not, to tell you the truth,” Thomson said of picking the reserves and pitchers. “I’ve got a lot of other stuff I need to think about.”
Fair enough. But Thomson has given some consideration to which Phillies players are most deserving of playing in the All-Star Game in Seattle in two weeks, and the same name continues to top his list: Nick Castellanos.
Castellanos continued to strengthen his case Wednesday night. He homered, doubled, and drove in four runs to lift the Phillies to an 8-5 victory over the Cubs before an announced crowd of 32,379 at Wrigley Field.
The Phillies won for the 17th time in 22 games, even as Aaron Nola broke a desirable streak and Bryce Harper continued an unwanted one.
Nola threw 97 pitches in five laborious innings, marking the first time since April 11 — 13 starts ago — that he didn’t complete six innings. The fifth inning, in particular, was a challenge. Staked to a six-run lead, he loaded the bases, walked in a run, and scrambled to get out of the jam with only two runs allowed.
Harper, meanwhile, extended his career-long homerless drought to 27 games and 122 plate appearances. In the ninth inning, he drove a ball to deep center field, where Mike Tauchman hauled it in on the warning track.
But Harper did contribute to a big offensive night. He walked in the first inning and stroked an RBI single up the middle in the fourth.
Let there be no doubt, though, that Castellanos delivered the biggest blows, as he has for much of the season.
The Phillies scored five runs in the second inning against Cubs starter Drew Smyly. And while the rally began with Edmundo Sosa’s two-run homer, Castellanos delivered a two-out, three-run shot to left field, only the Phillies’ fourth three-run homer of the season.
In the fourth inning, Kyle Schwarber doubled and scored on a two-out hustle double by Castellanos, who slid safely into second base with his team-leading 24th two-base hit.
It was a continuation of a turnaround season for Castellanos. After a well-documented disappointing first season with the Phillies, he been the club’s most consistent hitter, with a .314/.359/.498 batting line and 35 extra-base hits, including 10 homers.
There figures to be a spot for Castellanos on the NL All-Star team. He finished eighth in the initial phase of the fan voting, which determines the starters, but almost certainly will be selected in balloting of the players, managers, and coaches.
“You could see the difference in spring training because he was walking so much,” Thomson said. “And you could see, physically, he was staying back better and wasn’t jumping at the ball. It was spring training, but it just told me he was seeing the ball better.
“And for the most part, he’s probably our most consistent hitter this year.”
The replacements
With the Phillies facing a lefty starter for the first time in 10 days, Thomson got Josh Harrison, Edmundo Sosa, and Cristian Pache in the lineup in place of Bryson Stott, Kody Clemens, and Brandon Marsh, respectively.
It worked out well.
Sosa hit a two-run home run against Smyly in the second inning and waged a 10-pitch at-bat in the third. Pache singled and scored in the second inning. And Harrison chipped in a leadoff homer in the fifth to build an 8-2 lead.
