Philadelphia beat Tampa Bay 7-3 in Game 162 to secure the last National League wild-card spot.
The Philadelphia Phillies (2.75) beat the Tampa Bay Rays 7-3 on Sunday to clinch the final National League playoff spot. It marks their fifth consecutive postseason appearance, a franchise record.
A Week Of Near-Disaster
Philadelphia led Arizona (8.51) by a comfortable margin before losing four straight games. The Diamondbacks surged over the same stretch, closing to within one game. The Phillies scored only three runs during that losing run.
A 12-1 loss to Tampa Bay on Saturday deepened the panic. No team in 57 years of divisional play had blown a four-game lead with five or fewer games left. Phillies CEO John Middleton called the week “a living hell in slow motion”.
Wheeler And The Bats Deliver
Zack Wheeler pitched six innings, allowing one run on five hits with five strikeouts. He collected his 14th win of the season on a rainy afternoon. Bryson Stott opened the scoring with a two-out RBI double in the first inning. J.T. Realmuto added an RBI double in the second, ending a 34-at-bat hitless streak.
Kyle Schwarber then belly-flopped into second base after a two-run double, making it 4-0. Bryce Harper hit a solo homer, and Edmundo Sosa added a two-run homer for a 7-1 lead. Jhoan Duran struck out Nick Fortes to close it out.
A Season Rebuilt Under Mattingly
The Phillies started the year 9-19 and fired manager Rob Thomson in April. Don Mattingly took over as interim manager and turned the season around. Philadelphia went 79-55 under him and finished 88-74 overall. They never caught the Atlanta Braves in the NL East, finishing six games behind.
Mattingly told his players the work had only begun: “It doesn’t matter how you get in, you just got to get in,” he said.
Harper admitted the team should have clinched earlier: “Should we have clinched two weeks ago? Probably, right? But we didn’t. We clinched today,” he said.
Braves Await In The Wild Card Round
The Phillies (2.75) face Atlanta (1.60) in a best-of-three Wild Card Series starting Tuesday. Wheeler will almost certainly miss the opening games after pitching on Sunday. Cristopher Sanchez and Jesus Luzardo are candidates for Games 1 and 2.
Luzardo returned from the injured list to pitch the eighth inning against Tampa Bay. Atlanta won the season series 9-4. Philadelphia has lost in the Division Series in each of the last two years.
Schwarber believes his team can still go far: “When we’re playing our game, we’re a really hard team to beat,” he said.
