Minnesota Twins at Philadelphia Phillies

PHILADELPHIA (Interstat) — Nick Castellanos capped Philadelphia’s 96-win season with a sacrifice fly in the 10th inning as the Phillies beat the Minnesota Twins 2-1 on Sunday evening at Citizens Bank Park.

The walk-off victory provided a fitting end to the regular season for the NL East champions, who now turn their attention to the postseason. Trea Turner secured his second career National League batting title, while Kyle Schwarber finished the year leading the league with 56 home runs and 132 RBIs.

The Phillies are set to host Game 1 of the NL Division Series on Saturday. To stay sharp during the layoff, the team plans to hold an intrasquad scrimmage on Wednesday afternoon.

Sunday’s game was a classic pitchers’ duel, with both starters dominating opposing lineups. Minnesota’s Simeon Woods Richardson was brilliant, allowing just one hit and no runs over six innings while striking out nine. Philadelphia’s Cristopher Sánchez was nearly his equal, surrendering two hits and no runs over 5 2/3 innings with eight strikeouts.

The game was scoreless until the sixth inning. Minnesota’s Austin Martin worked a two-out walk and scored when Ryan Jeffers lined a double to left field, giving the Twins a 1-0 lead.

That advantage held until the bottom of the eighth. Facing Twins reliever Génesis Cabrera, Max Kepler led off the inning by launching a solo home run to right-center field, his 18th of the season, to tie the game 1-1.

The Twins threatened in the top of the ninth, putting a runner on second with one out, but Philadelphia reliever David Robertson escaped the jam to send the game to extra innings.

Orion Kerkering, the Phillies’ seventh pitcher of the afternoon, then struck out the side in the top of the 10th to keep the game tied.

In the bottom of the 10th, the automatic runner, Harrison Bader, advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Weston Wilson. With one out, Castellanos lifted a fly ball to center field, deep enough to easily score Bader and secure the victory.

Kerkering earned the win, improving to 8-4. Minnesota’s Cody Laweryson took the loss, falling to 0-1.

The game-time temperature was 68 degrees, with the roof closed. The attendance was 42,637, and the game took 2 hours, 37 minutes to complete.

The Phillies finished the regular season with a record of 96-66. The Twins concluded their year at 70-92.