The free-falling Phillies aren’t done yet: ‘We have hope.’ And it starts with Zack Wheeler on Sunday.
Win and they’re in the playoffs, and they can even lose and get in (with an Arizona loss). "You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do if that’s what it takes for us to get in," said Don Mattingly.
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.
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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.”
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.”
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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.”
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.
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.
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.”
Mattingly paused.
“It’s been a year,” he said.
And it comes down to one day.
Let's talk about the Phillies' bullpen. Larry Andersen happens to be an expert on the subject. The popular Phillies radio analyst had a 17-year major-league career in which he appeared in 699 games – all but one in relief. He joins Phillies Extra to break down the biggest question standing between the Phillies and a long run through October: How will they bridge the gap to closer Jhoan Duran? Watch here.
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