The Philadelphia Phillies made it to the finish line the hard way, but they got there.
By beating the Tampa Bay Rays 7-3 on Sunday, Philadelphia locked up its fifth straight playoff berth and officially knocked the Arizona Diamondbacks out of the race. It took all 162 games, but the Phillies avoided what would have been a massive collapse and punched their ticket to October.
That run also matches a franchise mark. The Phillies are now headed to a fifth consecutive postseason, tying the club record set from 2007 through 2011.
Philadelphia will enter the playoffs as the NL’s No. 6 seed and travel to Atlanta for a best-of-three wild-card series against the Braves.
The season finale had extra weight because the Phillies spent the final stretch making things harder than they needed to be. They were sitting in the No. 5 spot on Sept. 17, then stumbled badly over the last week, losing four straight and six of eight as the offense went quiet.
Sunday finally brought the kind of day they had been waiting for. The Phillies scored four times in the first two innings and grabbed control early.
Bryson Stott delivered the team’s first lead in five days with an RBI double in the first inning, then Bryce Harper and Edmundo Sosa added home runs in the fifth. Harper’s blast was Philadelphia’s first homer in 46 innings.
"We didn't play the best baseball we could in September," Harper said, according to Dan Gelston of The Associated Press. "Should we have clinched two weeks ago?
Probably, right? But we didn't.
We clinched today."
Zack Wheeler gave the Phillies exactly what they needed on the mound. He worked six innings, allowed one run, and struck out five.
Arizona had kept itself alive with six straight wins over the previous week, but that push ended Saturday in a loss to the San Diego Padres. That result put the Phillies in control of their own fate, while the Diamondbacks needed both a win and help from the Rays to get in.
Arizona last reached the postseason in 2023.
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Among fans, the reaction has been all over the map, with online debate centering on what this year says about the roster and the road ahead. Some are weighing the promise of a quick rebound against the frustration of another missed opportunity, and the lingering question is whether this season was a setback, a disappointment, or a sign of something deeper. [Read more 🡒]