ATLANTA — While Jesús Luzardo was warming up in the bullpen on Sunday to face hitters for the first time in 20 days, J.T. Realmuto was taking swings in the batting cage.
The catcher was preparing for his next at-bat against the Rays in the Phillies’ eventual 7-3 win, which clinched a berth in the National League wild-card series against the Braves. While he was at the batting cage, Realmuto took a peek at the screen displaying the bullpen feed.
What he saw wasn’t good. Luzardo wasn’t throwing any strikes.
“We were actually talking in the cage as hitters, like, ‘What? How are we going to get through this next inning? Zeus hasn’t thrown a strike yet,’” Realmuto said.
But as soon as the first hitter stepped into the box against him on Sunday, Luzardo quelled those worries. He needed just four fastballs to get three groundouts in the eighth inning. And with that first appearance back from injury under his belt, now Luzardo will start Game 1 for the Phillies against the Braves on Tuesday.
Interim manager Don Mattingly isn’t sure what to expect from the left-hander. Before the four-pitch outing on Sunday, Luzardo spent 15 days on the injured list with shoulder inflammation. He came out of his appearance feeling good, but the Phillies still don’t know how long Luzardo will be able to go in Game 1. The bullpen will likely carry a lot of the load.
Video: Phillies celebrate clinching a fifth-consecutive postseason berth
“Just a lot of talking through it, and give us the best chance to try to get the game off on a good foot,” Mattingly said. “The bullpen games haven’t gone great for us this year, but that’s where we’re at.”
The Phillies find themselves in this situation because of their late-September slide, which forced them to use Zack Wheeler to clinch in Game 162, rather than save him for the postseason.
In the celebratory clubhouse after Sunday’s game, Luzardo said he was willing to do anything the team asked to help it win. The Phillies hope he can get through at least the top of the Braves’ order, which usually includes some combination of righty Ronald Acuña Jr., lefties Drake Baldwin, Matt Olson, and Michael Harris II, and switch-hitter Ozzie Albies.
Luzardo had success against all of them — and the rest of the Braves’ lineup — in his last start, a two-hit, 1-0 shutout on Sept. 7.
“He’s a competitor, and he’s pitched a full season,” Realmuto said. “… I had a lot of confidence in him coming in [Sunday]. Have confidence in him going into the postseason.”
Rookie right-hander Andrew Painter will be in the bullpen to start Tuesday’s game, and could follow Luzardo to cover some of the outs.
Phillies rookie Andrew Painter had a 3.65 ERA in the second half.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
Two months ago, Painter was still tinkering in triple A after his demotion. After returning and posting a 3.65 ERA in the second half, he now figures to play a key role in a crucial postseason game.
Realmuto thinks he’s ready for the challenge.
“Just his overall growth has been really impressive to see out of a kid his age [23] that struggled early on, and especially in this market, with this team, with these expectations, that’s not easy to handle,” Realmuto said. “I thought the way he handled it was very impressive, given his age.”
Cristopher Sánchez is lined up to start Game 2 of the series on regular rest. Aaron Nola is preparing to start Game 3, but if the Phillies get to that point, all options will be on the table. Mattingly said even Wheeler, who threw 97 pitches in Sunday’s win, could be available in a win-or-go-home situation.
“I think this club over there, they present a challenge for anybody trying to get 27 outs,” Mattingly said. “That’s a really good offensive club and versatile, left, right, and all that, so it’s always tough. I think you just get to where you’re at. This is how we got here. We’re walking into it like this. We’re going to show up and play, and we’ll see where it goes.”
Before Sunday, the last time the Phillies won a baseball game, Zack Wheeler started. He dominated early and they beat the first-place Brewers.
The Phillies didn’t win again until Sunday, a game the Phillies had to win to ensure a fifth straight postseason berth. Wheeler started again. He dominated through his six innings.
Wheeler’s legend grew.
He helped avert the greatest collapse in Philadelphia sports history, and carried the rest of the franchise-record $330 million payroll with him. Most of that money pays Wheeler and four cornerstones of the lineup: two-time MVP Bryce Harper, three-time home run champion Kyle Scwharber, two-time batting champion Trea Turner, and two-time Silver Slugger catcher J.T. Realmuto.
Sunday, after a four-game slide recalled the horrors of the 1964 Phillies, all of the big names finally earned their money.
“We know who we are. You know who’s got to step up in big moments,” Wheeler said. “I mean, that’s why they gave us the contracts that they did. We got to play like it.”
After three straight years of dead bats in the playoffs, can they do this postseason what they did Sunday? We don’t know about the hitters.
We know about Wheeler.
Kyle Schwarber led the National League with 45 home runs and tied Pete Crow-Armstrong for the major league lead.David Maialetti / Staff Photographer
It was Wheeler, more than anyone else, who earned the Phillies the third wild-card slot with a 7-3 win in the season finale over the visiting Rays. Surprise cleanup hitter Bryson Stott went 3-for-3 with a walk, but Wheels dealt six innings of one-run, five-hit, five-strikeout ball in the biggest game of the season.
“You see a game that he has like or today — he goes out there, he knows what the task is at hand, and he was able to rise to that,” Schwarber said.
The win earned the Phillies the No. 6 seed, lowest in the playoffs, which means a three-game, first-round series, all at No. 3 Atlanta. That begins Tuesday, with the winner headed to idle No. 2 seed Los Angeles over the weekend.
The Phillies have lost 11 of their last 17 games against playoff-caliber teams. That’s the main reason why, after holding a five-game lead for the final wild-card spot with eight games to go, they needed a win in Game No. 162 to guarantee a playoff spot.
Is there any real hope they make it to L.A.?
“We got a chip and a chair,” said Realmuto, a poker enthusiast.
Interim manager Don Mattingly was both more succinct and more vulgar:
“It doesn’t matter how you get in. You just gotta get in,” he told his team during their long-delayed, champagne-drenched clubhouse celebration. “And we’re [bleeping] in!”
"It doesn't matter how you get in, you just got to get in. And we're f*cking in." -Don Mattingly pic.twitter.com/CuBayi23gk
There’s recent reason for optimism. With largely the same roster, the Phillies were the No. 6 seed in 2022, when they beat Atlanta in the playoffs and won the National League pennant. Wheeler was magnificent during that run.
He was just as magnificent Sunday.
Wheeler long ago locked up Comeback Player of the Year after missing the end of last season and the beginning of this season recovering from thoracic outlet syndrome. Sunday was his final argument, ending a season in which he allowed two runs or fewer in 20 of his 28 starts.
Wheeler is the highest-paid player in Phillies history, at $42 million per season. He earned his money Sunday, and has done so pretty much all season, especially down the stretch. Wheeler is 4-0 with a 1.67 ERA in his last six starts.
In the four straight losses that made Sunday so excruciating, Harper, Schwarber, Turner, and Realmuto were 10-for-59 with no home runs and two RBIs. None was great but Realmuto was brutal: 0-for-12 in those four games, part of an 0-for-33 stretch in his last 10 games.
On Sunday, that quartet went 6-for-18 with a home run, two doubles, and four RBIs.
Harper’s $330 million contract is the richest in franchise history. His homer Sunday, the 29th of his borderline elite season, stretched the lead to 5-1. Turner’s $300 million deal is No. 2. He batted leadoff and got two hits. Schwarber’s $30 million salary is second-highest in team history, and he singled, scored, and drove in two more runs with a double. Realmuto doubled and scored.
Bryce Harper hit his 29th home run of the season in the fifth inning on Sunday.David Maialetti / Staff Photographer
In the biggest of moments, this is what the top end of a $330 million payroll is supposed to do, said the man who signs the paychecks.
“I think the best competitors, the best players, are great competitors. If you’re a great competitor, you have the ability to rise to the occasion,” Phillies owner John Middleton said. “You have the confidence, but you know you’ve done it before, so you know you can do it again.”
Video: Phillies celebrate clinching a fifth-consecutive postseason berth
Middleton is right. For all of the failure that has marred the Phillies’ last three playoff runs, many of the current principals have produced in big moments, most recently Game 3 of the NLDS last year against the Dodgers.
They did it again Sunday, and so now, for at least three more days and for two more games, the Phillies’ season will continue.
Harper doesn’t much care.
Simply making the playoffs has never been his goal. No, Harper wants to win a World Series. It is the only achievement lacking in his Hall of Fame career. It is the only accomplishment for this group that justifies the $1.4 billion Middleton has spent in the past five seasons.
That's Bryce Harper's first home run since Sept. 12, and his second since Aug. 26. It's the Phillies first homer since Brandon Marsh's on Tuesday. pic.twitter.com/vqnR8OEztc
The glasses that Jesús Luzardo wears on the mound, and nowhere else, are one of his many superstitions.
The Phillies lefty has said in the past that they are nonprescription, and he only wears them because he has pitched poorly without them. Earlier this season, he shuffled through different walk-out songs — “Jesus Walks” by Kanye West, then “The Chain” by Fleetwood Mac — as he went through a rough stretch of starts, finally settling on the Philly-centric “Dreams and Nightmares.” Like many starting pitchers, he’s precise about his routine.
So it seems almost paradoxical that a pitcher with customs like those would be able to adapt the way Luzardo did on Sunday. After not facing live hitters in 20 days, since his complete game against the Braves, Luzardo came out of the Phillies bullpen in the eighth inning.
He used four pitches, all sinkers, to get three straight groundouts, and push the Phillies closer to the 7-3 win over the Rays that officially clinched a wild-card berth.
“Adrenaline was definitely high, for sure,” Luzardo said in the champagne-soaked clubhouse postgame. He had traded his glasses for ski goggles.
Interim manager Don Mattingly wanted the lefty to face hitters before the postseason arrived, but he didn’t anticipate it to be in such a crucial moment in the season. Luzardo was placed on the injured list on Sept. 12 with shoulder inflammation, and had been shut down from throwing at all for a while.
Philadelphia Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm (left) celebrates as Philadelphia Phillies designated hitter Kyle Schwarber (right) scores in the first inning.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler pitches in the second inning.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies designated hitter Kyle Schwarber hits an RBI double in the second inning.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm (center) congratulates Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Trea Turner (right) after he scores on a Philadelphia Phillies designated hitter Kyle Schwarber double in the second inning.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler pitches in the third inning.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies designated hitter Kyle Schwarber (left) and Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Trea Turner (right) react after the umpire called Philadelphia Phillies Bryson Stott out as he tried to steal second base. After a review, Stott was ruled safe.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies first baseman Bryce Harper watches his solo homer in the fifth inning.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies first baseman Bryce Harper celebrates his solo homer in the fifth inning.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler pitches in the fifth inning.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerPhillies fans celebrate after Philadelphia Phillies second baseman Bryson Stott scores in the fifth inning.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies left fielder Edmundo Sosa celebrates his homer in the fifth inning.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto looks up at the rain as it falls late in the game.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies pitcher Jhoan Duran celebrates the final out against the Tampa Bay Rays.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies pitcher Jhoan Duran (left) and Edmundo Sosa (right) celebrate after advancing into the playoffs.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerA Phillies fan holds up a sign after the Phillies win to clinch a playoff spot.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies pose for a group photo after they clinched a playoff spot.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies walk off the field after clinching a playoff spot at Citizens Bank Park.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerBryce Harper and his teammates celebrate in the clubhouse after clinching a playoff spot.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerBryce Harper and his teammates celebrate in the clubhouse after clinching a playoff spot.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Kyle Schwarber celebrates in the clubhouse after clinching a playoff spot.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerPhillies Bryce Harper and his teammates celebrate in the clubhouse after clinching a playoff spot.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies center fielder Justin Crawford celebrates in the clubhouse after clinching a playoff spot.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Kyle Schwarber celebrates in the clubhouse after clinching a playoff spot.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerPhillies catcher Garrett Stubbs celebrates in the clubhouse after clinching a playoff spot.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies pitcher Aaron Nola smokes a cigar as the Phillies celebrate in the clubhouse after clinching a playoff spot.David Maialetti / Staff Photographer
Gradually, as the inflammation went down, he began playing catch and then threw an encouraging bullpen on Thursday. As the Phillies’ losing streak stretched on, the idea of Luzardo pitching in a simulated game became less likely as the they needed all hands on deck to save their season. He was officially activated from the injured list earlier on Sunday, the first day he was eligible.
“Today we needed Zeus, get those outs, get him on the field,” Mattingly said. “Make sure he’s good tomorrow. That’s a different intensity today than in the bullpen. We’ll see where it goes.”
Had the Phillies built an even bigger lead, Mattingly said he would have considered using Jonathan Bowlan as well. Bowlan is not on the injured list to preserve his eligibility for the wild-card roster, but has not pitched since Sept. 17 due to a groin strain.
Luzardo is also glad to get an outing, as short as it was, under his belt before the postseason begins Tuesday in Atlanta. He didn’t petition the Phillies coaching staff to go back out for the ninth, knowing it was tabbed for closer Jhoan Duran.
As for his role in the wild-card series, Luzardo said he’d be willing to do anything and take any role, be it relieving or even starting of the games.
“If you ask me, I say yes,” Luzardo said of starting this week. “It’s really up to the team, but I feel like I’m prepared to give the team whatever they ask, whatever they need.”
Video: Phillies celebrate clinching a fifth-consecutive postseason berth
He’s viewing the playoffs as a fresh start, both for him and his injury, as well as for the team as a whole.
“You play 162 games for a reason. I think this team has what it takes, and we obviously showed it throughout a full season,” he said. “I don’t think the last four days are indicative of what we can do. I think today was.”
On the mound Sunday, Luzardo was still wearing his glasses, and Meek Mill was still playing. But nothing else was the same. He didn’t get to do his pre-start routine. He had to pause and clean his cleats before throwing his first pitch because the rain had turned the mound into mud.
But none of that was going to rattle him.
“I think the circumstances change a little bit,” Luzardo said. “So superstitions kind of go out of the window.”
They haven’t avoided disaster yet. For now, all they have done is postpone it.
That’s a good thing, of course. Much better than the alternative. The Phillies arrived at Citizens Bank Park on Sunday with a chance to irrevocably damage their legacy by completing one of the must sudden and improbable late-season collapses in baseball history. In avoiding that fate, they looked a lot like the team that set a standard they’ve so consistently fallen short of. They scored early, and they scored often, with contributions up and down the lineup. The Phillies’ 7-3 win over the Rays was the kind of performance we once expected from this team in October. The confounding thing is that they needed it just to get there.
All we can say right now is that their destiny is back in their hands. They will determine the final words that end up written about these last 10 days. Were they a harbinger? Or were they a rallying point? They will decide.
It would be lovely to say that the Phillies are exactly where we thought they’d be. That, after all the drama, after the four straight losses, and the six in eight games, after the Aaron Nola start on two days’ rest, and the three runs scored in 36 innings, after all of that, all that really matters is that the Phillies are in the playoffs and that the calendar starts anew.
It would be even lovelier to say that there could be some upside in the way they ended up earning their playoff spot. J.T. Realmuto was 0-for-34 before he yoked an RBI double to left field in the second inning to give the Phillies a 2-0 lead. Bryce Harper hadn’t homered in 12 games before crushing a solo shot to right field in the fifth to put the Phillies up 5-1. Every member of the lineup either reached base or had an RBI. In their final tuneup before the playoffs, everything worked the way it was supposed to. If it really does matter who the hottest team is this time of year, and if you are only as good as your last game, well, who is hotter than the Phillies right now?
The Phillies’ Edmundo Sosa celebrates his homer in the fifth inning.David Maialetti / Staff Photographer
That’s not reality, of course.
Not with Chris Sale looming.
Not with Zack Wheeler unavailable to start a game against the Braves on normal rest.
Not with Don Mattingly’s options to counter Sale in Game 1 limited to inconsistent rookie Andrew Painter and possibly a rusty Jesús Luzardo fresh off the injured list.
The Phillies entered the final week of the regular season with a chance to set themselves up for success in October. They could have been where the Padres are, hosting a best-of-three wild-card series on their home turf. They could be playing a team whose No. 1 starter has not held them to seven runs in 32 innings over his last five starts. They could have Wheeler on the mound in Game 1 instead of some combination of inconsistent rookie Painter and fresh-off-the-injured-list Luzardo.
The Phillies don’t have any of that. Which means they could still end up paying a steep price for the late-season swoon that saw them enter Sunday with a chance at completing the most (mathematically) dramatic collapse in the city’s history.
Most consequential is the lack of Wheeler. Against the Rays on Sunday, the 35-year-old veteran was exactly the pitcher you should have expected. With the Phillies needing a win in Game 162 to clinch a playoff spot, Wheeler held Tampa Bay to one run in six innings with five strikeouts and a walk. He threw an efficient 97 pitches, 68 of them for strikes. It was the perfect performance in the perfect spot.
Now, imagine if that spot had been Game 1 against the Braves instead of Game 162 against a Rays team with little to play for.
It will be a shame if Sunday was the last we saw of Wheeler this season. If it is, the Phillies will have only themselves to blame.
They need to win two more games in order to fully erase the disaster they’ve been over the last week-plus. With Game 1 in Atlanta slated for Tuesday, they still must win two more games just to get to the month of October.
Bryce Harper might’ve been the first to say it sometime around the middle of June. Or maybe it was Trea Turner. Either way, it became a motto amid the vomit-inducing ups and downs of the last few months.
Just get us in.
So, here were the Phillies on Sunday, at the end of a week from hell, with a nor’easter blowing through town, needing to win one stinkin’ game after losing four in a row to punch a ticket for tournament baseball and avoid entering the barroom debate over the worst collapse in franchise history.
“Everything resets, you know?” Harper said, as Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” kicked off a sudsy, smoky clubhouse celebration after a 7-3 victory over the Rays that felt more like a collective exhale. “You get into October, everything resets.”
Indeed, nothing that happened over the last six months matters anymore. Not the 9-19 start that got the first manager fired. Not the late-summer surge that began in an Iowa cornfield. And certainly not the 9-14 finish that threatened to unravel it all.
The Phillies’ Kyle Schwarber celebrates in the clubhouse after clinching a playoff spot on Sunday.David Maialetti / Staff Photographer
So, Game 1 of the best-of-three wild-card series begins at 2 p.m. Tuesday in Atlanta. And that’s just fine with the Phillies, who got showered with boos all week before finally cracking open the booze.
Make no mistake: They noticed. Just like they noticed how the mood in the ballpark turned when Bryson Stott lined a two-out RBI double in the first inning to give the Phillies their first lead since … checks notes… Tuesday — and the fans a reason to finally clap.
“That was one of our better crowds, I thought,” interim manager Don Mattingly said, beer goggles pressed to his forehead. “You don’t hear a lot of ‘Let’s Go Phillies’ at our games. It’s just waiting for things, right? And it would be great if it would be an uplifting type of scenario.
“In the Milwaukee series, somebody makes an out in the fourth with a guy on base, and it’s like a boo. And I know it’s the fans’ right to do it. But you can either lift up or you can hold down, and if you lift the team up, you’ve got a chance.”
Excuse Mattingly. He’s still new here, having just capped his first season with the Phillies. He got hired to be the bench coach and wound up replacing the fired Rob Thomson on April 28.
Mattingly is less familiar, then, with the narrative that has trailed the core of a team that has stayed largely intact since the unexpected World Series run in 2022. The Phillies backslid in each successive October, from the Game 7 loss at home in the 2023 NL Championship Series to last year’s divisional round loss to the Dodgers.
Video: Phillies celebrate clinching a fifth-consecutive postseason berth
So, here’s Harper upon being asked about the Phillies making a fifth consecutive postseason appearance for only the second time in their 144-year history: “Yeah, I mean, you wouldn’t think that with everybody’s opinion of us.”
If you sense a chip on his shoulder, well, maybe that’s not such a bad thing … now that the Phillies are in, of course, after a lot of folks thought they were Dead Men Walking.
“We’re the type of team that, we don’t care the people’s opinions of us or what they think or what anybody thinks about our team,” Harper continued. “Obviously we didn’t play the best baseball we could in September. Should we have clinched two weeks ago? Probably, right? But we didn’t. We clinched today, and that’s how the story is written right now.”
Zack Wheeler pitches in the fifth inning against the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday.David Maialetti / Staff Photographer
They wrote a happy ending in Game 162 because …
Zack Wheeler gave up one run in six innings after the game was moved up by a half-hour to begin in drier conditions, and Jesús Luzardo returned from the injured list and got three outs on four pitches in the eighth.
J.T. Realmuto broke an 0-for-34 spell with an RBI double in the second inning after being dropped to ninth in the order for the first time in his career.
Kyle Schwarber scorched a two-run double in the second inning, belly-flopped into second base and, in a rare display of on-field emotion, screamed to the dugout, “Let’s go!”
Oh, and Harper fouled off a slider, fastball, sinker, and splitter in succession before lining a 111.6-mph missile into the right-field bleachers in the fifth inning.
Indeed, the Phillies pulled through because they were led by the stars of their $320 million roster.
“This was what it was supposed to be today,” Mattingly said. “For whatever reason, this was how it was supposed to happen for the 2026 Phillies. Again, I think just getting in is the key, right?”
“Look,” said John Middleton, who was 9 years old during the Phillies’ epic collapse in 1964, “I did know the possibility that we wouldn’t get in. But I wasn’t particularly worried about it.”
Why not?
“I still maintain we are the best pitching staff in Major League Baseball,” said Middleton, wearing the standard issue red T-shirt and shorts and holding googles just in case. “Better than the Dodgers. Better than anybody else. And that’s particularly true with Luzardo back and healthy. I think our hitting could be really good.
“We kind of snuck in in ‘22. We didn’t necessarily sneak in here. We weren’t playing well at the end. But we know how to play well, and we played really well today.”
The Phillies walk off the field after clinching a playoff spot on Sunday at Citizens Bank Park.David Maialetti / Staff Photographer
If the Phillies play well in Atlanta, they might actually make it back home to see their fans again. The Braves won the NL East over them by six games and went 9-4 against them in the regular season.
It’s all irrelevant now. The Phillies got in. If they write their legacies over the next month, nobody will care that it took them 162 games to get there.
“Nothing that happened during the regular season matters anymore,” Harper said. “As a team, as a group, we’ve just got to go in, play the best baseball we can, get hot for the next couple weeks.
“We’ve never finished the job. So, we’ve got to do that.”
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.
Zack Wheeler gave up one run in six innings against the Rays on Sunday. David Maialetti / Staff Photographer
“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.
Philadelphia Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm (left) celebrates as Philadelphia Phillies designated hitter Kyle Schwarber (right) scores in the first inning.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler pitches in the second inning.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies designated hitter Kyle Schwarber hits an RBI double in the second inning.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm (center) congratulates Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Trea Turner (right) after he scores on a Philadelphia Phillies designated hitter Kyle Schwarber double in the second inning.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler pitches in the third inning.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies designated hitter Kyle Schwarber (left) and Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Trea Turner (right) react after the umpire called Philadelphia Phillies Bryson Stott out as he tried to steal second base. After a review, Stott was ruled safe.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies first baseman Bryce Harper watches his solo homer in the fifth inning.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies first baseman Bryce Harper celebrates his solo homer in the fifth inning.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler pitches in the fifth inning.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerPhillies fans celebrate after Philadelphia Phillies second baseman Bryson Stott scores in the fifth inning.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies left fielder Edmundo Sosa celebrates his homer in the fifth inning.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto looks up at the rain as it falls late in the game.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies pitcher Jhoan Duran celebrates the final out against the Tampa Bay Rays.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies pitcher Jhoan Duran (left) and Edmundo Sosa (right) celebrate after advancing into the playoffs.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerA Phillies fan holds up a sign after the Phillies win to clinch a playoff spot.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies pose for a group photo after they clinched a playoff spot.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies walk off the field after clinching a playoff spot at Citizens Bank Park.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerBryce Harper and his teammates celebrate in the clubhouse after clinching a playoff spot.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerBryce Harper and his teammates celebrate in the clubhouse after clinching a playoff spot.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Kyle Schwarber celebrates in the clubhouse after clinching a playoff spot.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerPhillies Bryce Harper and his teammates celebrate in the clubhouse after clinching a playoff spot.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies center fielder Justin Crawford celebrates in the clubhouse after clinching a playoff spot.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Kyle Schwarber celebrates in the clubhouse after clinching a playoff spot.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerPhillies catcher Garrett Stubbs celebrates in the clubhouse after clinching a playoff spot.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies pitcher Aaron Nola smokes a cigar as the Phillies celebrate in the clubhouse after clinching a playoff spot.David Maialetti / Staff Photographer
“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 Phillies pose for a group photo after they clinched a playoff spot on Sunday.David Maialetti / Staff Photographer
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.
Video: Phillies celebrate clinching a fifth-consecutive postseason berth
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.”
The Phillies are officially heading back to the MLB playoffs, though it feels more like avoiding a disaster than something to be celebrated.
Philly clinched the National League’s final wild-card spot by defeating the Tampa Bay Rays7-3 at a dreary, storm-soaked Citizens Bank Park.
It took 162 games for the Phillies to punch their ticket to the postseason, a trip that seemed all-but-wrapped up just last week. Bryce Harper and company had a five-game lead with eight games to play, but at least the team avoided an epic collapse on par with the 1964 Phillies, who blew a 6½-game lead with 12 games to play.
The 9-19 start that resulted in the firing of manager Rob Thomson and the initial revival under Don Mattingly.
A skid after the All-Star break and a surge that began in an Iowa cornfield.
The 8-14 finish that put them on the brink of collapse.
That’s now just the backstory as the Phillies prepare for their fifth-straight postseason run.
Here’s everything we know about the Phillies’ playoff schedule, wild-card opponent, and how to get playoff tickets if they manage to escape the wild-card round and end up back at Citizens Bank Park.
This will be updated as more information becomes available.
Phillies wild-card opponent will be the Braves
Braves ace Chris Sale dominated the Phillies this season.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
The Phillies ending up with the final wild-card means they’ll be traveling south to face the Braves at Truist Park in Atlanta.
Philadelphia went 4-9 against Atlanta this season, and lost its most recent series a couple week ago.
The good news is the Phillies have had a fair amount of playoff success against the Braves in recent years. In both 2022 and 2023, the Phillies defeated the Braves in the National League divisional series, despite Atlanta having home-field advantage both years.
MLB playoffs: 2026 Wild Card TV schedule
Phillies announcers Tom McCarthy (left) and John Kruk will call wild-card games for NBC. Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
The wild-card round of the MLB playoffs is scheduled to begin on Tuesday.
This year it jumps from ESPN to NBC, and Phillies fans will hear a familiar voice — NBC Sports Philadelphia announcer John Kruk, who will serve as an analyst alongside C.J. Nitkowski and play-by-play announcer Matt Vasgersian. Joey Votto will also join the broadcast as an in-stadium analyst.
Tom McCarthy, the TV voice for the Phillies, will call the other National League wild-card series between the Chicago Cubs and San Diego Padres.
Here’s the wild-card TV schedule:
Tuesday, Sept. 29
Phillies at Braves: 2 p.m. on NBC
White Sox at Astros: 5 p.m. on NBCSN
Red Sox at Yankees: 8 p.m. on NBC
Cubs at Padres: 9:30 p.m. on NBCSN
Wednesday, Sept. 30
Phillies at Braves: 2 p.m. on NBC
White Sox at Astros: 5 p.m. on NBCSN
Red Sox at Yankees: 8 p.m. on NBC
Cubs at Padres: 9:30 p.m. on NBCSN
Any necessary Game 3s will take place Thursday.
NBCSN is available on Xfinity (channel 1211 in Philly), YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV, and Fubo, but it isn’t currently available on Verizon Fios. All the games will also stream on Peacock, NBC’s subscription streaming service.
While NBC Sports Philadelphia won’t broadcast any Phillies games, radio announcers Scott Franzke and Larry Andersen will continue to handle play-calling duties on 94.1 WIP.
How can I get Phillies playoff tickets?
If you’re an optimist, you might be able to land Phillies tickets to the NLDS. Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
A handful of seats for Games 1 and 2 of a possible National League divisional series at Citizens Bank Park were still available on the team’s website as of Sunday morning.
The team will notify you if you’ve been randomly selected for the opportunity to purchase playoff tickets on Monday, Oct. 12.
Full 2026 MLB playoff schedule
Jackson Chourio and the Brewers are the No. 1 seed in the NL. Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
The MLB playoffs feature 12 teams (six from each league), with three division winners and three wild-card teams per league.
Here are the National League’s six playoff teams:
Milwaukee Brewers
Los Angeles Dodgers
Atlanta Braves
San Diego Padres
Chicago Cubs
Philadelphia Phillies
Here are the six playoff teams in the American League:
Tampa Bay Rays
Cleveland Guardians
Houston Astros
New York Yankees
Boston Red Sox
Chicago White Sox
2026 MLB playoff TV schedule
Following the wild-card round, Fox will broadcast the final two rounds of the National League playoffs, while the American League games will air on TBS. The World Series will once again air on Fox.
Here’s how the MLB playoff schedule breaks down this season:
Wild-card series (best-of-three): Begin Sept. 29 (NBC, NBCSN)
Divisional series (best-of-five): Begin Oct. 3 (Fox, FS1, TBS, truTV)
Championship series (best-of-seven): Begin Oct. 11 (Fox, TBS)
World Series (best-of-seven): Begins Oct. 23 (Fox)
Phillies should benefit as ABS system makes playoff debut
J.T. Realmuto has been very successful in his challenges to balls and strikes.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
As for other playoff rule changes, there will be no “ghost runners” during the postseason.
MLB’s designated runner rule puts a player on second base to begin each half-inning if a game is tied after nine innings. The rule was an attempt to preserve pitching staffs and avoid extra-long regular season games.
But during the playoffs, that rule is out the window. So if any postseason games enter extra innings, you won’t see anyone on second base.
The Phillies are moving up their start time for Sunday’s game against the Tampa Bay Rays from 3:05 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. due to inclement weather, the team announced.
The nor’easter howling through the East Coast has left the Philadelphia region with heavy rainfall, which is expected to continue throughout Sunday afternoon and evening.
The Phillies said the earlier start time should provide the best opportunity to play Sunday’s regular-season finale without interruption.
The plastic sheets have been rolled up above the lockers in the Phillies’ clubhouse since Wednesday.
It’s like they’re part of the decor.
But they’ll stay there for one more day. Because a team that extends its season after the endurance test of 162 games in 185 days deserves to let loose. A playoff spot, no matter how it’s won, is worth celebrating.
And somehow, someway the Phillies can still make the playoffs. Even after this Saturday Night Massacre — a 12-1 humiliation, in the rain, against the 98-win Rays — near the end of a week from hell in which a $320 million roster has gotten plenty of boos but not a drop of booze.
Heck, they can make it even if they lose again Sunday.
And wouldn’t that be fitting?
“We’ll see,” said interim manager Don Mattingly, who appears more downcast by the day.
OK, let’s get this out of the way: The Phillies will make the playoffs if they snap a four-game losing skid in the regular-season finale … with Zack Wheeler starting on regular rest … and Jesús Luzardo expected to be back from the injured list and available out of the bullpen.
“To me, it just comes down to our offense,” said J.T. Realmuto, hitless in 34 at-bats, four shy of matching an unwanted franchise mark. “We need to be able to score.”
The Phillies’ Justin Crawford loses his helmet while batting in the third inning on Saturday.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
Easy enough, right? Until Rays second baseman Richie Palacious bobbled a grounder in the seventh inning, the Phillies hadn’t scored in 21 innings, a season-high. They have scored three runs or less in 10 of the last 13 games.
So, what if the bats don’t thaw against Rays starter Nick Martinez, a 15-game winner with a 2.94 ERA? Well, the Phillies can back into the playoffs — can’t you just hear the beep, beep, beep? — if the Diamondbacks lose in San Diego.
But you have to wonder about the collective psyche of a team that has made this all much harder than it ever needed to be.
“Two weeks ago,” Realmuto said, “I wouldn’t have guessed that we’d be in this situation.”
Indeed, when the month began, the Phillies led the Diamondbacks by 6½ games with 23 remaining. At the start of this week, the lead was four games with six to play. The Phillies’ playoff odds were 99.1%, according to Fangraphs.
No wonder Mattingly has looked shaken after the last few games. And although Kyle Schwarber, the Phillies’ de facto captain, often notes in times of trouble that the core of the roster has been through almost everything together over the last five seasons, they haven’t experienced anything like this.
“Obviously we put ourselves in a tough situation where we have to win [Sunday’s] game to keep our season alive, most likely,” Realmuto said. “It’s definitely frustrating. But we have hope in this group, and we have a lot of confidence here that we can get it going.”
If it was to happen, this feels more comparable to the 2007 Mets, who led the Phillies by two games with five left and finished 1-4 (while the Phils went 4-1). Even the 2011 Red Sox finished 2-3 to blow a 1.5-game lead over the Rays on the final night. (Rays finished 5-0).
There isn’t much else to say. And there weren’t many players left in the clubhouse to say it after getting throttled by the Rays.
Aaron Nola was made to start the game on two days’ rest because the fourth-largest payroll in the sport somehow doesn’t include a No. 6 starter. He faced seven batters, got three outs, and gave up three runs on four extra-base hits, including a two-run homer to Rays star Junior Caminero.
“I was actually really proud of him,” Mattingly said. “Taking the ball there on two days’ [rest], kind of just gutting it out.”
But Nola shouldn’t have been in that position any more than the Phillies should be in their overall predicament. In that way, he was a symbol of everything that has gone awry.
The season for interim manger Don Mattingly and the Phillies comes down to one game on Sunday.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
So, they turn their lonely eyes to Wheeler, less a stopper than firewall against missing the playoffs for the first time since 2021. The Phillies are 19-8 in his starts.
“We’re always confident when that guy’s on the mound,” Realmuto said.
Never mind that the Phillies will have to burn Wheeler in Game 162 instead of saving him for Tuesday night in Atlanta, when he would’ve been lined up to start Game 1 of a best-of-three wildcard miniseries.
But the only thing more unexpected than the way things have unfolded is that the Phillies might actually live to tell about it. All of it.
Video: J.T. Realmuto: The Phillies are ‘as hungry as we’ve ever been’ to win a World Series
The 9-19 start that resulted in the firing of manager Rob Thomson and the initial revival under Mattingly.
A skid after the All-Star break and a surge that began in an Iowa cornfield.
The 8-14 finish that put them on the brink of collapse.
“I didn’t really picture this, like having to do this,” Mattingly said. “But you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do if that’s what it takes for us to get in. And then it’s all square. It’s all even.”
The Phillies are on the verge of it. Know that. It can be difficult to recognize when you are living through it. Think of the worst you ever heard. Make it worse. This is it.
For the vast majority of us whose sports consciousness had not yet dawned in 1964, the year has always been one that occupied the same narrative spaces as walking to school in the snow uphill both ways. As bad as things were when they were worse than we ever had it, we never had it that bad. The great Phillies Phold of ‘64 wasn’t an urban legend as much as it was an origin story.
Well, here we are. The 1964 Phillies had a 6½-game lead with 12 games to play. The 2026 Phillies had a five-game lead with eight games to play. It does not get worse than this.
However it plays out, whatever happens on the final day of the regular season, whether the Phillies win, or see the Diamondbacks lose, or the inverse occurs, they have already accomplished something in the least sense of the word. They have forced us to consider what was long held to be the epitome of impossible.
By the end of a 12-1 loss to the Rays on a cool, wet, desperate Saturday night in South Philadelphia, the current era of Phillies baseball had been reduced to the hollow sound of bat on ball that echoed through a near-empty stadium that had long before lost its will.
Pitching on two days’ rest, Aaron Nola gave up three runs in his one inning on Saturday.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
Embarrassment is not nearly a strong enough word to describe the precipice upon which the Phillies currently stand. It may not even be an emotion they are collectively capable of feeling, given the lack of soul they’ve displayed over the last two-plus seasons. And maybe that’s what you get when you build a team full of players who are here primarily because you offered them more money than anybody else. Maybe that’s your soul.
Maybe.
There have been many instances over the last several years where the Phillies have appeared to be better than that. Much better, at times. They played the first two months of last season at a 106-win place. They played the eventual world champion Dodgers close to even before bowing out in a National League Divisional Series. Nobody can question the individual competitive integrities of guys like Bryce Harper and Zack Wheeler and Kyle Schwarber and J.T. Realmuto. And, yet, the totality of what we’ve seen since mid-October 2023 suggests there is something lacking in the collective. Whatever that thing is, isn’t there right now.
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The goal now is to avoid infamy. It is to preserve legacy. It is to summon the last shred of political capital they earned in 2022 and escape from Game 162 with a reason to believe. It will be one thing to make the playoffs. It will be another to do so and also offer a reason to believe that they’ve accomplished anything greater than delaying the start of their offseason by another few days.
The biblical tone is warranted. The Phillies are on the precipice of a disaster that transcends even their own lengthy track record of misery. Barely more than a week ago, the math said they had a 99% chance at making the playoffs. With eight games to play, they had a five-game lead for the final NL wild-card spot. They entered Wednesday needing some combination of two wins and Diamondbacks losses to clinch a playoff berth. That number will still sit at one when they take the field Sunday for Game 162.
The Phillies’ Bryce Harper dives safely back to first base after briefly trying to stretch a single into a double in the eighth inning.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
It will sit there in spite of — because of? — their understanding that Game 161 was one they needed to win. Interim manager Don Mattingly’s decision to start Aaron Nola on two days’ rest backfired in a manner as spectacular as it was predictable. By the time a lot of folks realized the Nor’easter-delayed game had started, the Rays were up 3-0, courtesy of a loud home run by Tampa Bay’s Junior Caminero. The conditions did not improve.
By the start of the seventh inning, the Phillies needed a touchdown and an onside kick and a field goal just to tie the game. They had the bases loaded in the seventh and eighth. They ended up getting an extra point. Long before then, the focus had turned to Sunday, with an inch of rain predicted to fall.
The metaphors write themselves. As do the hypotheticals. We needn’t dive into them now. They’ll be actualities soon enough. Even if the Phillies win on Sunday, how can we possibly believe in a team that failed to win a game in its most desperate moment? Worse still, what if they lose and still sneak into the playoffs because of a Diamondbacks loss? Does any of it matter now that Mattingly is treating his pitching staff like they are playing Game 7?
Questions like these are what Monday is for.
Mattingly, Gene Mauch, 2026, 1964 …
The only thing to do right now is watch the story unfold.
