Phillies 6, Brewers 4: A Win, a Shrug, and a Magic Number of Two
The magic number is two. Any combination of two Phillies wins or two Diamondbacks losses, and Philadelphia is in.
The Phillies beat the Brewers 6-4 last night at Citizens Bank Park, which moved the important number down to two. That's the magic number. Two. Any combination of two Phillies wins or two Diamondbacks losses, and Philadelphia is officially in. It would be great if both things happened. It will probably be one of them.
Zack Wheeler Was Rude, Then Tired
Wheeler struck out the first seven Brewers he faced, setting a franchise record and picking up his 2,000th career strikeout along the way. It was the kind of start that makes opposing hitters question their career choices. Then, in the sixth, the Brewers played small ball, Wheeler ran out of gas, and the game was tied 3-3. He left to a standing ovation with 11 strikeouts and a no-decision, which is baseball's way of saying "great, but no."
If the Phillies clinch before Sunday, Wheeler likely won't pitch this weekend. He'll just rest, which is the professional athlete version of doing nothing and calling it preparation. Then he'd presumably start Game 1 of the wild-card series on Tuesday, which seems like a reasonable reward for striking out 11 people and then sitting down.
The 8th Inning Was a Comedy Sketch
With the game tied 3-3, Luis Arraez and Alec Bohm singled off Colton Gordon, and Bryson Stott lined a slider up the middle. Center fielder Garrett Mitchell's throw went to third to try to get Bohm. The ball hit Bohm's foot and bounced into foul territory. Both runners scored. That is not how baserunning is taught, but it counts the same. Brandon Marsh followed with an RBI double, because Marsh had decided this was his game: two-run homer in the second, double in the eighth, three RBIs on the night. Jhoan Duran closed it out for his 33rd save, though the Brewers did scratch a run off him in the ninth, just to keep everyone emotionally regulated.
What It Did to the Race
The Phillies are 87-70 and still chasing the Cubs and Padres by one game for the top wild-card spot, which matters because the top seed hosts the entire best-of-three. Philadelphia holds the tiebreaker over San Diego but not Chicago, which is the kind of detail that becomes extremely annoying in about five days.
Meanwhile, the Diamondbacks beat the Rockies 7-2 last night and still moved closer to elimination, because the Phillies also won. There is no more demoralizing sentence in sports than "you won, and it didn't help." Arizona sits four games back with five to play. The math is getting loud.
And the Brewers, who just lost, clinched a first-round bye anyway because the Reds beat the Braves. Milwaukee celebrated a playoff bye by losing 6-4, which is one way to do it.
What's Left
The regular season ends Sunday. The Phillies finish at home, where they are a problem for visiting teams. Two more wins, or two Arizona losses, and it's official. After that comes the seeding question, which the Phillies would prefer to answer with a home series at the Bank.