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ATLANTA — Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Nick Castellanos called the postseason a “fresh start” for him after helping his team to a 7-6 victory over the Atlanta Braves in Game 1 of the National League Division Series on Tuesday.

Castellanos, 30, had three hits and three runs driven in, plus a ninth-inning, diving catch in right field to help seal the win for the visiting team.

“It’s kind of just a fresh start, a clean slate, so to speak,” Castellanos said after the game. “And obviously these games are really intense. For me, that helps me lock in and kind of slow things down. It’s just a lot of fun.

“Baseball is really, really fun.”

That may not have been the case for the veteran for much of the regular season, as his numbers were well below his career averages. He compiled an OPS-plus of just 95, the lowest of his 10-year career.

“The one thing that all of us in this room share in common is we want to contribute to the club as much as we can every night,” teammate Rhys Hoskins said. “When you’re not doing that it wears on you.

“The thing I’ve been impressed with is he’s the same guy. He comes in, gets his work in, and off he goes in the game. It’s awesome to see him have success today.”

Castellanos signed a five-year, $100 million deal with Philadelphia in the offseason, struggled, then got hurt late in the year. He returned for the final nine games of the regular season while producing an OPS of just .536.

Going 0-for-7 in the wild-card round didn’t help matters, but that all changed on Tuesday. Castellanos had an RBI single in the first inning, a double in the third, then a two-run single in the fourth, becoming the first Phillies player with a 3-hit, 3-RBI game in the postseason since Jayson Werth in the 2009 NLCS.

“Today (my swing) felt great, and that’s the only thing really that I’m focused on and then getting ready to go and make sure it feels great again tomorrow,” Castellanos said.

Not known for his defense, he capped off his stellar day with a diving catch at the most important moment in the game.

The Braves had just narrowed their deficit to one run on a Matt Olson three-run homer in the ninth before Castellanos sprinted in on a line drive off the bat of William Contreras. He laid out for it, snaring the ball just before it hit the grass.

He was asked if he was happy or just relieved as he lay on the ground afterward.

“All the above,” he answered with a smile. “Just looking (up), like, thank God I caught that ball. They obviously had a big point in the game right there with putting them within one. So to be able to catch that and have two outs and nobody on was huge.”

Hoskins added: “I was screaming at him, ‘C’mon, c’mon, stay up.’ You could feel momentum right there. They had it after the homer. To get the next guy out is huge.”

Castellanos’ first two hits came off Braves starter Max Fried, who lasted only 3⅓ innings while giving up six runs, four of them earned — though he made the error allowing the other two to score.

Fried’s velocity was down a tick and his stuff wasn’t great. It led to questions about his health, as Fried was recovering from an illness over the final week of the regular season. He downplayed it.

“It stayed with me for longer than we were expecting,” Fried told reporters. “It’s one of those things you just have to battle.

“I’m not going to make any excuses. I took the ball today and put us in a big hole, right off the bat.”

Braves manager Brian Snitker noticed something was off with Fried, who left a game early against the New York Mets in late September.

“I asked him after the fourth, when he came off,” Snitker said. “He went down and he was mad and everything. I just wanted to make sure he was OK physically. And he just kind of wasn’t firing today.

“He had the flu, the last game he pitched against the Mets. But he’s been doing everything, throwing his sides. Did all the drills, did everything. Just didn’t happen for him today.”

And so the Phillies took advantage, led by one of their quiet stars who was coming off a quiet regular season. Perhaps the tide is turning for their right-fielder after helping his team to a mid-October win.

“I can’t explain (the postseason),” Castellanos said. “It’s one of those things that the air is different, the atmosphere is different. And those are all things that I really enjoy.”

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Prosecutors: Witness in Miami murder case found

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Prosecutors: Witness in Miami murder case found

Florida prosecutors confirmed in a hearing Friday that their key witness in the murder case of a former University of Miami football player is alive and was contacted Thursday by officers where he lives in Kentucky.

ESPN reported Thursday that, despite prosecutors stating July 17 that they tried every effort to locate 81-year-old Paul Conner and had a report from a commercial database he was dead, journalists found Conner alive at his apartment in Louisville.

Conner is the only eyewitness in the case against former Miami football player Rashaun Jones, who is facing second-degree murder charges in the 2006 shooting of teammate Bryan Pata. Jones, who was arrested in 2021, has pleaded not guilty.

Miami assistant state attorney Cristina Diamond told Florida 11th Circuit Court Judge Cristina Miranda that, after the ESPN story was published, her lead detective reached out to police in Louisville and asked them to go to Conner’s last-known address — where ESPN reporters had found him.

“They were able to make contact with Paul Conner. So at this time, what I can tell the court is that Paul Conner is alive,” Diamond said, adding that she had reviewed the officer’s body camera footage. “I think the state needs to do a little bit of further investigation. It appears that he was very confused and is not certain what the case is about.”

When ESPN reporters interviewed Conner on Aug. 25, he said he did not remember details about the case. Miranda had ruled in July that, assuming Conner was dead, the state could present jurors a videotape of prior testimony he gave in 2022 in a bond hearing in the case in lieu of having him testify in person.

If a determination is made that Conner is not competent to testify, she said, “we may still be in the same situation.”

Conner first spoke to police shortly after the Nov. 7, 2006, shooting, and he picked Jones out of a police lineup. Police reinterviewed him in 2020. Conner also recounted what he saw at the 2022 bond hearing and in a 2023 deposition with attorneys.

At the time of the shooting, Conner lived in the same apartment complex as Pata. He said during his 2022 testimony that he heard a “pop” and saw someone “jogging” away from the parking lot entrance near where Pata, a likely high pick in the 2007 NFL draft, was shot once in the head.

How the confirmation of Conner’s status affects the case, which is scheduled for trial Oct. 6, is to be determined after attorneys argued in court Friday about what steps to take next regarding questioning Conner and going over the evidence of the state’s prior efforts to find him.

Jones’ attorney Sara Alvarez told Miranda that she wanted to request a hearing to determine if prosecutors violated the rules of evidence, saying she thought the false conclusion of Conner’s death “may have been intentional.”

Diamond rebutted that accusation, saying Miami-Dade officers made multiple attempts to reach Conner.

“This is our key witness in the case. This is somebody we want,” Diamond told the judge. “The defense is accusing me of making misrepresentations to the court. Every representation made to the court was based upon a conversation with an officer who I was prepared to have testify.”

Diamond was referring to officers from the Louisville Police Department who she said went to Conner’s address over the summer and “spoke to someone but believed it was not the witness.” She said she had a copy of the body camera footage as well. She said those officers told her they also spoke to someone with the apartment’s leasing office who did not find Conner in their records.

She said they did not locate a death certificate in Kentucky but relied on the third-party commercial database that stated Conner was deceased. Jones’ counsel asked for a copy of that report along with other records that would verify the state’s efforts.

The Louisville officers did not testify Friday, as the judge decided to give the attorneys some time to correspond with each other and decide how they wanted to proceed.

ESPN had asked for records or information from the Louisville Police Department regarding efforts to locate Conner, and a department spokesman said there were no records of any officer going to Conner’s address this summer prior to a July 22 request from a former colleague who had called for a welfare check on Conner after being contacted by ESPN reporters.

ESPN made multiple requests to police and the Miami-Dade State Attorney for records of their efforts to find Conner. After initially saying they had no documents, they eventually provided an email exchange in which lead detective Juan Segovia wrote that he left 15 voicemail messages with Conner since May. Segovia added that he also sent emails to an address that officers had used with him previously. They also provided a copy of a June 6 letter addressed to Conner at his Louisville address that asked him to contact their office.

They provided an email exchange with a Louisville police officer, but it had no information about Conner or efforts to find him, and they provided a copy of a subpoena for the officer to testify. ESPN reached back out to Louisville police with the name of the officer and a request for further information and is waiting on a response.

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Sources: MSU set to have top WR, RB vs. USC

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Sources: MSU set to have top WR, RB vs. USC

Michigan State wide receiver Nick Marsh and leading rusher Makhi Frazier are expected to play at USC on Saturday night, sources told ESPN’s Pete Thamel on Friday.

Marsh had a leg injury in last week’s win against Youngstown State, and Frazier suffered a lower-body injury. Both are cleared and in line to play in the Spartans’ Big Ten opener, sources said.

Through three games, Marsh has caught 16 passes for 194 yards and three touchdowns, which is tied for second among Big Ten wide receivers.

Frazier began his sophomore season by rushing for 103 yards and a touchdown on 14 carries in Michigan State’s win over Western Michigan. Through three games, he has totaled 206 rushing yards and two touchdowns.

Both Frazier and Marsh will face off against a USC team that is also 3-0 and boasts a defense that has forced seven turnovers this season.

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Source: Ole Miss QB Simmons unlikely to play

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Source: Ole Miss QB Simmons unlikely to play

Ole Miss quarterback Austin Simmons has been limited all week in practice and is unlikely to contribute significantly against Tulane on Saturday, a source told ESPN’s Pete Thamel.

Simmons might be available in an emergency role, the same as last week against Arkansas when he came off the bench and threw a touchdown pass in a 41-35 win. In the process, he aggravated his ankle injury, which has kept him limited this week.

This paves the way for Trinidad Chambliss to start for the second consecutive game. On3 reported that Chambliss is the expected starter against the Green Wave.

Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin had been optimistic Simmons would start for the No. 13 Rebels.

“I would anticipate Austin being fine to play and being our starting quarterback [against Tulane],” Kiffin said earlier this week about Simmons.

Simmons has completed 34 of 56 passes for 580 yards with 4 touchdowns and 4 interceptions this season.

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