The Philadelphia Phillies need two wins and some help to secure the No. 1 seed in the National League playoffs.
On Saturday afternoon, the Phillies hope to rebound from a lackluster performance when they continue their three-game road set with the Washington Nationals.
After dropping Friday’s series opener 9-1, Philadelphia (94-66) sits two games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers (96-64) in the race for the top spot in the NL postseason. The Phillies hold the tiebreaker with the Dodgers, but Philadelphia would need to defeat the Nationals in their final two games while hoping Los Angeles loses its final two against Colorado.
“We have just one objective, and that’s what we’re focusing on right now,” the Phillies’ Ranger Suarez said through an interpreter after allowing six runs in two innings in Friday’s defeat.
If the Phillies are going to achieve that objective and win the third World Series title in franchise history, they will need to play better than they did Friday. Manager Rob Thomson was not thrilled after his team committed two errors, not to mention multiple mental errors, and managed only four hits in the rout.
“It wasn’t vintage Phillie baseball, that’s for sure,” Thomson said.
Philadelphia will look to turn the page behind ace Zack Wheeler (16-7, 2.56 ERA) on Saturday. The veteran right-hander likely won’t win the NL Cy Young Award, but he continued his terrific season Sunday by allowing two runs in seven innings in a 2-1 loss to the New York Mets.
Wheeler has won both of his starts against the Nationals this season, with a 2.03 ERA in those outings. Overall, he is 14-15 with a 4.50 ERA in 34 career starts against Washington. This will be his final tune-up before he starts the Phillies’ postseason opener next weekend.
In Saturday’s contest, Wheeler will take on a Nationals team that registered 16 hits in the series opener, including three apiece by Juan Yepez, Luis Garcia Jr., Jacob Young and Stone Garrett.
The performance by Garrett — 3-for-4 with a homer, a walk and three RBIs — was particularly noteworthy, as he was appearing in a major league game for the first time in more than 13 months after breaking his leg at Yankee Stadium last summer.
“I couldn’t walk. I had to re-learn how to walk,” an emotional Garrett said after finishing a triple shy of the cycle on Friday. “To be back here with the guys and the bright lights, I can’t describe it. It’s an amazing feeling to know that I can still compete at this level.”
Washington (70-90) on Saturday will hand the ball to left-hander MacKenzie Gore (10-12, 4.04 ERA) in its penultimate game. Gore is 3-1 with a 1.82 ERA over his last six outings.
“A lot of guys come to the ballpark, they see it as a job and whatnot, but MacKenzie really loves coming to the ballpark and just playing the game of baseball and being the best that he can be,” Nationals veteran Joey Gallo said after Gore gave up just one run and one hit in seven innings last Saturday in a 5-1 win over the Chicago Cubs. “He had little hiccups there in the middle of the year, but (it’s a) long year, and it says a lot for him to be able to get over that and be pitching well here at the end.”
Gore is 1-4 with a 5.72 ERA in eight games (seven starts) against the Phillies.
–Field Level Media