The Philadelphia Phillies can expire. Which is not the sign of a regular season where everything went as planned.
With a 7-3 win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday, the Phillies clinched the National League’s third and final wild card spot, holding off a late charge by the Arizona Diamondbacks. They will face their division rival, the Atlanta Braves, in the wild-card round.
Advertisement
Philadelphia could have clinched a playoff spot as early as Wednesday, in a three-way tie with the Chicago Cubs and San Diego Padres at 87-70. The D-backs were seemingly dead in the water, four games behind the trio with five games each remaining.
The Cubs and Padres both clinched Thursday. The Phillies, meanwhile, lost all of their games from Wednesday through Saturday, by a combined score of 23-3.
As MLB reached the final day of the regular season, the Phillies entered Sunday with a one-game lead over the D-backs, but it was Arizona who held the tiebreaker. This created a make-or-break scenario in which the Phillies could avoid disaster with a win or a D-backs loss.
Sunday could have been a very dark day for the Phillies. Instead, they ended a four-game losing streak.
(Émilee Chinn via Getty Images)
The Phillies treated the weekend as if they were facing a playoff game, first starting Aaron Nola on short rest in their 12-1 loss to the Rays on Saturday, then activating Jesús Luzardo from the injured list to come out of the bullpen behind Zack Wheeler on Sunday.
Advertisement
Wheeler delivered what was needed with a 6 inning start consisting of 5 hits, 1 run, 0 walks and 5 strikeouts on 97 pitches. Luzardo got the ball in the eighth inning and recorded three straight groundouts before handing the ball to closer Jhoan Duran.
Meanwhile, the Phillies offense recorded more runs in the first two innings than in the previous four games combined, with Bryson Stott, JT Realmuto and Kyle Schwarber all hitting RBI doubles. Disaster averted.
Even with a loss, the Phillies would have been safe thanks to the D-backs’ 9-4 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks around the same time.
The Phillies’ reward will be a three-game road series against the Braves, against whom they went 4-9 this season. Moving forward will be a daunting challenge, but it dwarfs the alternative of what would have been described as the second coming of “Phold,” the Phillies’ infamous September 1964 collapse.
This will be the Phillies’ fifth straight postseason berth, but they are still looking for their first World Series title since 2008. They haven’t won a postseason series since the 2023 NLDS.
Gn sports
