On a clear June evening in Washington earlier this year, the Phillies were down to their final strike of the game. Improbably, unbelievably, they pulled off an eight-run comeback anyway. A night later, they did it again, needing only two runs that time.
On an August night in Anaheim, Calif., there were two outs in the ninth when Edmundo Sosa hit a go-ahead grand slam.
The Phillies have failed many times this year. There have been cold spells, blown leads, perplexing errors, and losing streaks, though none more humiliating than the four straight they lost last week. But they have also pulled off the unlikely. And so perhaps it was fitting that in the 11th hour of their season, in Game 162, the offense at last woke from its slumber.
In Sunday’s 7-3 win over the Rays, with big-game pitcher Zack Wheeler on the mound, the Phillies finally finished the task. In the final game of the regular season, with rain pouring the entire time, they secured the last National League wild-card spot. They will now head to Atlanta for the best-of-three series that begins on Tuesday with Game 1 at 2 p.m.
“Whatever happens, wherever we gotta go, if you’re good enough to win it all, you gotta beat everybody,” said interim manager Don Mattingly.
In the batting cages before the game, Trea Turner and a few teammates mused that they had never played in a Game 162 that truly mattered before. In years past, their teams had either been already in, or completely out of the playoffs by the time they reached the end of their regular-season schedule.
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“You gotta do what you gotta do,” Turner said. “You gotta find a way in, and at times this year we didn’t play well, but we played good enough to sneak in. And now, it’s just trying to move on.”
Bryce Harper and Edmundo Sosa each hit a homer, after the offense had gone 47 consecutive innings without one. The Phillies did the little things, too: stole bases, moved runners with a sacrifice bunt, scored with sacrifice flies. In the end, they had 12 hits, and eight of nine starters reached base at least once. They only struck out five times.
J.T. Realmuto had one of the biggest swings after Mattingly dropped the catcher to ninth in the order for the first time in his career. As his slump reached 0-for-34 in the Phillies’ embarrassing 12-1 loss on Saturday, Realmuto said plainly that he had been letting his teammates down.
He didn’t let it go any further. With two out in the second inning and Sosa on second after hitting his own double, Realmuto hit a line drive to left field. Sure, it was misread by Victor Mesa Jr., who got turned around, but at 110.5 mph off the bat it was a solid piece of contact, and it gave the Phillies an early 2-0 lead.
“You knew that every run you get when you got Wheeler out there is important,” Mattingly said. “You get a run early, it takes a little pressure off early.”
Trea Turner advanced Realmuto to third with a single, before Kyle Schwarber ripped a 116.8 mph laser off the right-field wall to score two. As he got to second base standing up, Schwarber turned back to his dugout and let out a roar and a fist pump, in a rare display of intense emotion from the 33-year-old.
“We’re in the cages early. Guys are taking ground balls. Pitchers are doing what they need to do,” Schwarber said. “We’re preparing on a daily basis for these opportunities, and we find our way in. And now it’s the same thing. We get down there, we prepare, do our work, and get ready to go.”
How the Phillies will line up their pitching against the Braves for the wild-card series remains to be seen. Mattingly declined to announce his starter for Tuesday’s Game 1 in the celebratory postgame clubhouse. The collapse of the last week still casts a long shadow, as they were forced to burn Wheeler to extend their season beyond Sunday.
The right-hander rose to the occasion in his biggest start of the year, holding the Rays to one run over six innings to give his offense time to work.
Wheeler struck out the side in the first inning, one swinging and two looking, to set the tone. He worked around traffic, allowing five hits, but struck out five and didn’t walk a batter. He also took matters into his own hands defensively on occasion, catching a pop fly and fielding a grounder, too.
“I love pitching in these big games,” Wheeler said. “I mean, I just tried to give the best I could today.”
The 36-year-old finished his comeback regular season with a 3.00 ERA in 162 innings. A year ago, there were external questions about whether Wheeler would ever be himself again on the mound after undergoing thoracic outlet decompression surgery. But he never doubted it.
Wheeler’s day, and regular season, was finished after 97 pitches, with Alex McFarlane taking over in relief for the seventh. The righty had a comfortable lead, but gave up two runs on Jonny DeLuca’s second homer of the day and a ground-rule double, followed by a single off Alec Bohm’s glove at first base. He ended the inning with a pop fly.
As Jesús Luzardo worked his way back from the shoulder stiffness that landed him on the injured list on Sept. 12, Mattingly hoped to have him face hitters at some point in the process. He didn’t envision those hitters to be in the eighth inning of a must-win game, but that was another consequence of the Phillies’ recent slide.
Luzardo had a four-run cushion as he jogged out to the mound. Mattingly had said pregame that while the lefty’s recent bullpen session had gone well, there was still a question of how he would look in a real game.
It turned out, quite strong. Luzardo needed just four pitches — all fastballs — to retire the side with three straight groundouts.
Then, he passed the baton in the ninth to closer Jhoan Duran, who struck out Cedric Mullins and Nick Fortes to send the Phillies to the playoffs for the fifth straight year.
This week wasn’t pretty. But it still ended in a jubilant clubhouse, with that protective plastic finally unfurled, cans of beer strewn about and cigar smoke in the air. The Phillies are viewing this, and what awaits Tuesday, as an opportunity to wipe the slate clean.
“I think all of us feel like we can play better. I know I can play better,” Turner said. “At this point in the year, really for the last month or two, it’s just about winning. That’s all that matters. I don’t care if I play well, Bryce, Kyle, the bullpen, the starters. It doesn’t matter who plays well. It matters if you win or lose. And I think that’s how we’re all looking at it.”
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