PHILADELPHIA – It wasn’t easy, but the Phillies are heading to the postseason for a fifth consecutive season.
They avoided a historic collapse and won the final game of the season against the Rays 7-3. Zack Wheeler was stellar through six innings, allowing only one run on a solo home run.
The Phillies needed a win or Diamondbacks loss to make the postseason. This time, they took care of business themselves.
They will head to Atlanta for the wild card series beginning Tuesday. Who knows what the pitching plan will be, but at least they got there.
Bryson Stott, hitting in the cleanup spot, went 3-for-3 and drove in the first run of the game on an RBI double. The Phillies kept the bats going all day long.
J.T. Realmuto broke his 0-for-34 in the second inning with a double that just got past the outstretched glove of left fielder Victor Mesa Jr. His first hit since Sept. 13 drove in Edmundo Sosa, who doubled. Sosa appeared to tweak something in his lower half when he rounded first. He was checked out by a trainer, but he stayed in the game.
Sosa later homered in the fifth inning to drive in the seventh run of the day for Philadelphia. Both Phillies homers came on line drives that just got over the right field fence. Bryce Harper hit his 29th of the season in the fifth.
Alex McFarlane allowed two runs in the seventh, turning a 7-1 game into a 7-3 game. With the rain starting to pick up – and the Diamondbacks inching closer to the Padres in their contest — the Phillies got Jesús Luzardo up for the eighth.
The Phillies left-handed starter, a candidate to start Game 1, needed only four pitches to get through the inning. He handed the ball to Jhoan Duran, who set the Rays down 1-2-3 in the ninth.
You can breathe now, Philadelphia. The Phillies are going to the postseason.
