Late on Sunday night, a collective sigh let out across the Delaware Valley. The Phillies, on the back of an 11th inning walk-off single from Nick Castellanos, had just taken three out of four from the Atlanta Braves in the most important series of the regular season. With Sunday night’s victory, the Phillies upped their lead on the division to an even seven games over Atlanta with just 25 games left on the year.
The series victory was more than just a numbers game for the Phillies, however. Yes, it put the division seemingly out of reach of the rival Braves–a likely opponent in the NLDS given the Phillies can secure a first-round bye–and yes, it also put the Phillies a half-game ahead of Milwaukee for the number two seed in the National League. Despite extending the division lead, the race for premium playoff seeding–i.e. the chance to clinch the second seed in the N.L. and avoid the Wild Card round–is still as tight as ever, with an upcoming three game set against Milwaukee on September 16 the potential deciding factor.
Playoff seeding notwithstanding, however, the weekend’s victory over the Braves was perhaps just as important morally for the Phillies as it was numerically in the standings. Nearly two weeks prior, the Phillies had sacrificed two out of three to the Braves in Atlanta, bringing the division lead down to four games and squandering what had looked like a turning point in the team’s downward trajectory since the All-Star Break. The Phillies scored just six runs over those three games and were flummoxed by the breaking ball, particularly that of rookie starter Spencer Schwellenbach, who at one point retired 19 batters in a row.
Since that series, however, the Phillies seem to have gotten ahold of themselves. They’ve rattled off three straight wins against teams with winning records. They’ve pitched beautifully. On Sunday, Aaron Nola allowed two runs across six innings of work, striking out nine en route to his 18th quality start of the season, second only in MLB to teammate Zack Wheeler. The bullpen, which has struggled just as much as the offense since the All-Star break, looks to be firing on all cylinders once again. In the past week, the team’s top relievers–aside from Jose Alvarado, who recently returned from the restricted list–Orion Kerkering, Jeff Hoffman, Matt Strahm and Carlos Estevez combined for 15.1 scoreless innings.
Questions still remain. What is the status of Alec Bohm, who left Thursday’s game with a left-hand strain and was hitting just .206 with one extra base hit in his last two weeks of play? How will Bryce Harper’s health, recently put into question, be managed throughout the remaining games this year? And will the starting rotation, now operating without Taijuan Walker, be able to provide enough innings to properly rest the key starters ahead of the playoffs? Only time will tell, but after the Phillies’ resounding win over the Braves this weekend, it’s difficult not to be encouraged by their outlook.
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