It looked like a video-game score by the time it was over. Eleven runs for the Phillies. Nine for the Nationals. A three-run bomb from Alec Bohm in his first game back. An offense that stacked extra-base hits and traffic all over the bases. And a bullpen parade that stretched all the way from the third inning to Jhoan Duran in the ninth.
On the surface, it was the kind of messy-but-welcome win that teams tuck into their back pocket at the end of a long road trip. But beneath it all, there’s no escaping the larger truth: the one man the Phillies can’t afford to lose is gone indefinitely. Zack Wheeler. Blood clot. Right shoulder. That diagnosis Saturday shifted everything about this team’s September — and maybe their October.
Bohm’s bat wasted no time making an impact. He turned a second-inning swing into a three-run shot that doubled the Phillies’ lead and gave his teammates the jolt they’d been missing since his rib fracture sidelined him a month ago. They needed it, because what followed was another entry in the Aaron Nola rollercoaster saga.
Two quick, easy innings. Then the third inning arrived, and so did the unraveling. Seven straight Nationals reached base. A single here, a walk there, doubles down the line, runs crossing in bunches. In just 2 1/3 innings, the cushion vanished, Nola’s ERA ballooned to 6.92, and the bullpen had to chew through five more innings just to get the game to the ninth.
That job fell to Tanner Banks, Joe Ross, and Matt Strahm. Rob Thomson tried to finish things with Max Lazar, but three runs later, it was Duran — less than 48 hours removed from hobbling off the mound after a comebacker — who slammed the door.
It’s one thing to talk about October depth when Wheeler is anchoring the rotation. It’s another when a blood clot leaves his status a mystery. Suddenly, Nola isn’t the guy you hope rounds into form; he’s the guy you need to. Bohm isn’t just an extra bat in the lineup; he’s a centerpiece in an offense that looks completely different when he’s producing with runners in scoring position.
Bohm missed 26 games. Nola missed three months. They both returned on the same day. And now, because of Wheeler, every inning they pitch, every swing they take, feels like it carries more weight than before.
The stars chipped in, too. Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber, and Bryce Harper combined to reach base eight times. Nick Castellanos, buried in a 1-for-38 funk with no multi-hit games in over two weeks, finally broke out with a homer and a double.
All of it added up to an 11–9 escape. But as the Phillies pack up and head home for a series with the Mariners — one of the hottest teams in the American League — the game itself is the subplot. The headline remains Wheeler, and how the rest of this roster absorbs the shock.
Because now, in Philadelphia, the season feels less like a long road trip and more like a tightrope walk.
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