Bryce Harper and Edmundo Sosa homered, and Zack Wheeler delivered like a Game 7 ace to bring the Philadelphia Phillies back from the brink of collapse and send them to the playoffs. Their 7-3 win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday clinched the final National League wild card spot.
The Phillies could have clinched a playoff spot as early as Wednesday before losing four straight games and nearly blowing their wild-card lead to Arizona. But the Phillies’ victory on Sunday gave them the final wild card spot in the National League.
The Phillies will play the first game of a best-of-three wild-card series Tuesday in Atlanta against their NL East rivals, the Braves.
“It was kind of hell in slow motion,” Phillies managing partner and CEO John Middleton said of Philadelphia’s nerves last week.
Elsewhere, the Texas Rangers were eliminated from playoff contention on the final day of the regular season with their 6-4 loss to the Minnesota Twins, who got a homer and three RBIs from Josh Bell to support Dean Kremer’s seven innings of one-run pitching. Texas (80-82) needed a win and Houston needed a loss against the Athletics. Houston, which held the division tiebreaker, led 8-0 in the eighth inning as the Rangers’ game ended.
MLB wildcard lineups
The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox will benefit from prime time exposure. All three potential AL first-round games that begin Tuesday will begin around 8 p.m. ET and will be televised by NBC. The Atlanta series hosting Philadelphia will have games televised at 2 p.m. on NBC, and the Chicago White Sox series at Houston will begin at 5 p.m. ET, with games televised by NBCSN. The Chicago Cubs series at San Diego will have games at 10 p.m. ET and will be televised by NBCSN.
Gn sports
