Rob Issa, FISM News
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Major League Baseball’s playoff teams are now set, as the Philadelphia Phillies secured the final postseason spot Monday night.
Aaron Nola retired the first 20 batters he faced and Kyle Schwarber hit two homers, including one off the first pitch of the game, to lead the Phillies to a 3-0 win in Houston on Monday night and secure Philadelphia’s first trip to the postseason since 2011.
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The champagne celebration was a long time coming for Nola, Bryce Harper, Rhys Hoskins, and other Phillies who endured years of futility and several September collapses.
“We finally made it,” Nola said, erasing doubts after a couple of poor finishes.
The Phillies became the 12th team and last team to earn a postseason berth in MLB’s expanded format. They will face either the St. Louis Cardinals or the top wild-card team in the National League, which will be either the Atlanta Braves or New York Mets. The best-of-three series will begin later this week.
It didn’t seem like the Phillies would be celebrating anything at this point when they started 22-29 and fired manager Joe Girardi. Rob Thomson took over on an interim basis, however, and the team took off. The Phillies started 8-0 with Thomson and won 14 of his first 16 games.
“At the start of the year we just weren’t playing well and we weren’t playing to our capability,” Thomson said. “But I always felt like we were going to get there and we did. So. I just happened to come in at the right time.”
After the Seattle Mariners clinched their first playoff berth in 21 years Friday night, the Phillies had the longest active drought in the majors.
“Too long. But this is the best,” Hoskins said.
Harper has dreamed of this moment since he came to Philadelphia in 2019, signing a $330 million, 13-year contract as a free agent. He was the NL’s Most Valuable Player last season but has been limited to 98 games this season and serving only as a designated hitter because of injuries.
“I’m so excited to be back here with an organization that I absolutely love,” Harper said. “This is the plan, this is the goal to do this but this is step one. I’m so excited to be here as a Philadelphia Phillie. I got chills thinking about it.”
Phillies’ managing partner John Middleton allowed team president David Dombrowski to surpass the salary cap’s luxury tax for the first time in club history by signing free agents Kyle Schwarber and Nick Castellanos in the offseason.
Schwarber responded with an NL-best 46 homers.
“This is very satisfying because you know what, it’s a long season,” Schwarber said.
It’s unbelievably long and to see the things that we went through as a team, where you go through a manager change, you go through (Bryce) being down, you go through (Jean Segura) being down, you go through (Zack) Wheeler being down, you go through the naysayers saying we can’t catch the baseball, it makes it that much more satisfying to be where we’re at. And you know what — the September that we had, it wasn’t the September that we wanted it to be, but to be in the position we are and be able to celebrate at the end of the year, that’s what it’s all about.
NL East down to the wire
Atlanta currently sits 1.5 games ahead of New York in the National League East. The Braves will play their final two regular season games tonight and tomorrow against the Florida Marlins (68-92). The Mets will play the Washington Nationals (55-104) in a doubleheader today, followed by their final matchup tomorrow.
Dodgers dominate NL West, Padres slide into postseason
The Los Angeles Dodgers already earned the No. 1 seed in the National League. They currently have an MLB-best record of 110-50.
The Dodgers’ NL West rival San Diego Padres (88-72) currently have the fifth seed in the playoffs, only one game ahead of the Phillies (87-73). The teams could flip-flop positions over the final two games.
AL hosts set, last two Wild Cards battle for position
The American League’s top three teams are set with the Astros (104-56) and New York Yankees (98-61) earning first-round byes as the two top seeds.
The Cleveland Guardians (90-70) will host either the Mariners (87-72) or Tampa Bay Rays (86-74) in a best-of-three series. The Toronto Blue Jays (91-69) will host the other of the two.
Higher seeds will host the entirety of the first-round series. That means the Phillies, Padres, Mariners, and Rays will have to win two out of three on the road in order to advance and get a home game in the postseason.