Rhys Hoskins and Aaron Nola slug and sling the Phillies closer to postseason in 9-1 rout of the Braves

After driving a ball 103.8 mph through a 17-mph crosswind and into the left-field seats in the fourth inning Friday night, Rhys Hoskins did what must have felt natural to him in the moment.

He spiked his bat.

It is football season, after all.

Hoskins got to the majors in 2017 after being drafted and developed by the Phillies. So, to him — and also Aaron Nola, whose time on the active roster dates back to 2015, longer than any of his teammates — the last week of September really is time to think about football. Around here, baseball’s postseason tends to be more conceptual than realistic.

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But Hoskins and Nola can see it now. They can feel it. The magic number to clinch a wild card dipped into single digits after the two homegrown stars chopped away at it by slugging and slinging the Phillies to a 9-1 trouncing of the playoff-bound Atlanta Braves before 28,013 on a chilly night that only enhanced a postseason sensation that hasn’t existed at Citizens Bank Park in, oh, about 10 years.

“It’s fun right now,” Nola said. “We’ve got a chance for a wild card. Got to stay on the winning train. Every game matters right now.”

OK, let’s get to the math: The Phillies maintained a 2½-game lead (3½, including the tiebreaker) over the Milwaukee Brewers for a wild card. With 12 games to go, any combination of nine Phillies victories and Brewers losses will secure the Phillies’ first playoff berth since 2011.

It all seemed so unsteady a few days ago. The Phillies had lost five games in a row and trailed 3-0 in the eighth inning Wednesday night against the Toronto Blue Jays. But they rallied to win, 4-3, in 10 innings, the start of a three-game roll that has them on firmer ground.

The difference is all the difference. The Phillies were in contention late in each of the last four seasons. But rather than seizing a playoff spot, they fell and never got back up. This September, they recovered from getting swept in San Francisco by winning seven of the next eight games, then walked off the Jays to keep five losses from turning into six.

Nola and Hoskins have been around to see it all. They aren’t about to take anything for granted now.

“We know where we stand within the standings,” Hoskins said. “But I think we’re doing a pretty good job, at least in our conversations in here before we go out, of trying to keep the focus on what we’ve got going on for the day.”

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In winning a second game in a row over the Braves, the Phillies jumped on starter Jake Odorizzi and scored two more runs than they did in three games last weekend in Atlanta. Never mind that the Braves were without Ronald Acuña Jr., who missed a second consecutive game with back spasms. Nola held them to four singles in six innings.

If Nola set the tone, Hoskins did the rest. He fielded a wicked chopper to first base in the second inning — “I haven’t seen [the replay] yet. I didn’t even really see it when I made it,” he said, jokingly — then banged an elevated fastball into left field for a two-run double that stretched the margin to 4-0 and his career RBI total to 400.

Fast forward to the fourth. This time, Odorizzi left a slider over the middle of the plate, and Hoskins didn’t miss the chance to make it 6-0 and collect his 300th career extra-base hit.

Cue the bat spike.

The whole scene brought to mind something Hoskins talked about a few years ago. Standing in a hallway off the Phillies’ spring training clubhouse in Clearwater, Fla., he pointed out a panoramic photo that captures the moment they won the World Series in 2008.

“I don’t want to hear about it anymore,” Hoskins said then of the electric playoff atmosphere. “I want to feel it.”

It’s getting closer.

Don’t look now, but Nola has a 2.08 ERA in four starts this month.

Dogged by critics for rough Septembers over the last four seasons, Nola lacked his typical precision command, matching his season high with three walks. But he also used five pitches to generate 17 swings and misses (five with his curveball, four apiece with his fastball and cutter, three with his changeup, and one with his sinker).

“I feel just as strong as I do every September,” Nola said. “Getting the results I want to right now.”

Nola is scheduled to start next Thursday in Chicago followed by Oct. 4 in the season’s penultimate game in Houston. The Phillies would prefer to clinch before then so they could line up Nola to start Game 2 of a best-of-three wild-card round.

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Bryce Harper drove in the Phillies’ final run with a sacrifice fly. But his frustrations at the plate continued with two strikeouts.

Harper is 3-for-31 with 13 strikeouts in his last eight games.

“I think he’s just caught in between right now. It’s just timing,” interim manager Rob Thomson said. “He’ll get it back.”

En route to finishing 3-for-4, Alec Bohm was credited with an RBI triple when Braves center fielder Michael Harris II dropped the ball as he crashed into the scoreboard in right-center field.

But Bohm’s biggest play of the game came on the bases. He made a smart read around second base and went from first to third on Brandon Marsh’s single to right field. Two batters later, Bohm scored the Phillies’ first run on Bryson Stott’s sacrifice fly.