After 10 seasons, the Philadelphia Phillies are postseason bound!
Aaron Nola pitched 6 2/3 innings of some of the best baseball of his life while Zach Eflin came in and did an 8 out save to get the win over a 104 win Houston Astros team, in Houston, 3-0. All the offense was off of three homeruns, two by Kyle Schwarber and the other by Bryson Stott.
Astros manager Dusty Baker came out earlier and said that they are playing to win, despite having nothing to play for (they will have the best record in the AL and 2nd best record overall in the MLB) and he stuck to his word but it just wasn't their night.
I will also give the Astros props as, even though they lost, they did salute the Phillies with a "Congratulations, Philadelphia." on their scoreboard inside the ballpark. Classy, even in defeat.
You could see how much this meant to the players in the clubhouse. Rhys Hoskins, a homegrown player, was fighting the tears in the postgame interview. Aaron Nola, another homegrown player, stumbled on words when interviewed while standing next to his best friend on the team, Zach Eflin. Jean Segura and J.T. Realmuto, the two active players that had the most games played without a postseason appearance, were jubilant. Bryce Harper, who was brought here for this, finally felt the relief of helping deliver what he was brought here to do while battling injuries this season.
But, it starts at the top. It starts with Rob Thomson. After June 1st, when he took over, the Phillies went 65-44 over the last 109 games under his lead. That's a 59.6% winning percentage. Over the course of a 162 game season, that's 96-67 wins. Rob Thomson had the Phillies playing like a 96-97 win team since June 1st. I think it's only a matter of time before the interim tag is removed from him. Ever the calm man, even in his locker room speech before the champagne flew, he let the team know that the job is not done and that there are 13 more games to win starting this weekend.
With two games remaining, and the team pretty much locked in to the third wildcard spot, I'm not sure how Thomson will manage the team. The team's most likely opponent would be the currently 92 win St. Louis Cardinals and they will likely have to deal with Adam Wainwright (with Zack Wheeler opposing him) in game 1 of the best of three along with possible NL MVP Paul Goldschmidt with the ever dangerous Nolan Arenado. Let's not forget the now 702 career home run man, Albert Pujols, who suddenly has been hitting better as he got to 700. Can the Phillies beat that team? Yes. They have during the regular season around the halfway point. I even wrote about it.
Don't believe me? Read it.
And then went to win the season series, 4-3. Will they beat them in the playoffs is a different story. At the time of that article, the Cardinals were in the wild card spot. They went on to overtake Milwaukee and win the division. So, like the Phillies, they have also played better. But, they have the right man for the job.
Go Phils! It's Red October!
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