It was only fitting that an up and down game, full of the bitterest disappointment and the most ebullient joy, would end with Nick Castellanos. The man himself is an up and down player, sometimes swinging helplessly at anything that breaks, sometimes delivering the sorts of plays that children mimic as they swing Wiffle Bats and fantasize about being in the bigs. Tonight we saw Casty in his finest form.
A swinging strikeout of Francisco Lindor to start the game may have calmed some nerves, but the next at-bat, a double down the first base line from Mark Vientos, restored the sense of nausea.