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| The Phillies clubhouse celebration as they clinch a postseason berth. |
That may be the biggest benefit of Monday.
For nearly a week, everything around this team was compressed into a single question: Would the Phillies get into the postseason at all? A playoff berth that once seemed inevitable became uncertain as the offense disappeared, Arizona kept winning and Philadelphia carried its season all the way to Game 162.
Then Zack Wheeler did what an ace is supposed to do. The bats finally gave him room. The Phillies beat Tampa Bay, 7-3, and clinched the National League’s final wild-card berth, securing a fifth consecutive postseason appearance and matching the longest playoff run in franchise history.
It took longer than expected. The route was far too circuitous. But the Phillies are here, and Monday morning’s workout at Truist Park offered something they badly needed before a best-of-three Wild Card Series against Atlanta begins Tuesday: a chance to reset.
“We didn’t play the best baseball we could in September,” Bryce Harper said after Sunday’s clincher. “Should we have clinched two weeks ago? Probably, right? But we didn’t. We clinched today.”
The celebration was real. So was the relief.
Interim manager Don Mattingly reduced the situation to its simplest form before the bottles were opened.
“It doesn’t matter how you get in, you just got to get in,” Mattingly told his players. “And we’re [bleeping] in.”
Now the Phillies have to figure out what comes after getting in.
Their first problem is obvious.
Wheeler had been positioned to start Game 1. Instead, the Phillies needed him Sunday just to save their season. He threw 97 pitches over six innings, allowing one run on five hits while striking out five. That performance got Philadelphia to Atlanta, but it also forced Mattingly and his staff to rebuild the front end of their postseason pitching plan.
As of Monday morning, the Phillies had not announced a Game 1 starter.
Andrew Painter is an option. The rookie last pitched Thursday and threw a bullpen session Sunday, putting him on normal rest for Tuesday.
Jesús Luzardo is another possibility, although his situation is more complicated. He returned from the injured list Sunday after missing nearly three weeks with left shoulder inflammation. His first game action since Sept. 7 lasted only four pitches — three groundouts in a clean eighth inning.
His previous appearance offers some intrigue: Luzardo’s Sept. 7 start was a two-hit shutout against Atlanta.
Aaron Nola also remains in the picture after throwing only 21 pitches Saturday while working on short rest.
That uncertainty stands in sharp contrast to Atlanta.
The Braves will hand the ball to Chris Sale, who finished the regular season with a 2.16 ERA and posted a 2.08 ERA across four starts against the Phillies.
It is the price Philadelphia pays for needing every last day of the regular season.
The consequences extend beyond Game 1. In a three-game series, there is little room to recover from a poor matchup or a pitching plan that gets away early. The Phillies may need to mix and match starters, use one behind another or ask pitchers accustomed to rotation routines to work in unfamiliar roles.
And pitching is hardly the only question.
Philadelphia finished September tied for 29th in the majors with a .226 batting average and .356 slugging percentage. Its .660 OPS and 3.71 runs per game also ranked 29th. Luis Arraez continues to deal with a sprained left ankle, leaving his availability — particularly defensively — uncertain.
The opponent will not provide much forgiveness. Atlanta won nine of 13 meetings with Philadelphia this season and gets every game of the series at Truist Park.
There is history here, of course. The Phillies eliminated Atlanta in the 2022 and 2023 Division Series, turning both trips into defining moments for the current core.
But those series do not solve Tuesday’s problems.
Sale is different. The pitching alignment is different. The Phillies enter the postseason trying to prove Sunday’s seven-run performance was a turn rather than a temporary interruption in a month-long slide.
That is why Monday matters.
The champagne was for surviving.
The workout is about what comes next.
The Phillies spent the final week of September playing as if every inning might be their last. For one day in Atlanta, they can finally stop looking behind them.
Tuesday, the season starts over.
And this time, there is no room to take the long way around.
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