Phillies punch playoff spot by crushing Mets originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
NEW YORK — They say third time’s a charm.
After failing to win two straight nights, the Phillies finally cleared the hurdle, marking the first of three important goals on the club’s end-of-season checklist: clinching a playoff spot.
The Phillies clinched their playoff berth for the third straight season with a 12-2 upset victory over the Mets. It’s just the third time the Phillies have made the playoffs in three consecutive seasons (1967-78, 2007-11).
Red October, here we come.
Friday marked Sanchez’s 30th start of the season — he’s the first left-handed pitcher to make 30 starts in a season since Cole Hamels in 2014. Sanchez’s numbers on the road in 2024 have been a bit of a horror — and in his 14th start at a place not called Citizens Bank Park — those struggles continued early (though he settled in shortly thereafter).
On his third pitch of the night, he gave up a home run to Jose Iglesias. It was Iglesias’ first career home run in the leadoff in an inning, his fourth of the season.
Sanchez couldn’t retire the next two batters he faced, and the Phillies exited the first inning with a two-run deficit for the second straight night. That’s not ideal.
What was ideal was seeing the Phillies’ immediate response. Alec Bohm and Nick Castellanos had back-to-back singles, followed by Pete Alonso missing a routine fly ball from JT Realmuto to load the bases with no outs.
Only one run crossed the plate thanks to a sacrifice by Edmundo Sosa. If they didn’t win the game, it would come back to haunt them.
New York’s two-out run production was a nice change of pace. Five of their six runs scored Thursday night came with two outs. Their second run Friday night was the same.
Bryce Harper and Bohm singled in the third inning. Harper scored on a double by Castellanos, but a wild pitch caught catcher Luis Torrens off guard — so Bohm tried to score. The ball bounced off the wall and came right back to Torrens … and the only thing that bounced more was Bohm as he tried to avoid contact from Mets pitcher David Peterson.
Seriously, he tried to escape the tag by jumping out of his slide to jump over Peterson and touch the plate. It was an impressive effort, but Bohm was ultimately eliminated. If they didn’t win the game, *this* would come back to haunt them.
At this point, the Phillies were making solid contact at the plate, Sanchez was coming off his best inning of the young night…and then, the Baseball Gods arrived.
Sosa and Weston Wilson were in scoring position when Johan Rojas dribbled a ball down the third-base line past Mark Vientos. Luckily for the Mets, the ball boy behind him caught it safely. Of course, he thought it was a foul.
Both runs scored, the Phillies took their first lead of the series and exploded for a six-run inning, including a three-run home run by Bohm.
Remember Sanchez’s struggles in the first inning? Say goodbye to them.
He got stuck in the bottom of the fifth inning, loading the bases with two outs while allowing a double and a pair of walks…but escaped unscathed.
The magic number to win the division is now one.
If the Phillies can at least split the four-game series with the Mets, they will return home for the final home series of the regular season with their first division title since 2011.
Two years ago, Ranger Suarez worked his way out of the bullpen to get the final outs of the NLCS to send his club to the World Series.
On Saturday, he will have the opportunity to set the tone for the month of October and help his club win the NL East crown.
Suarez has been unsteady since returning from the 15-day injured list on Aug. 24 with lower back soreness. In his five starts since then, the left-handed pitcher is 2-2 with a 4.44 ERA. He has pitched more than five innings just once.
So how can we be sure that “Mr. Rager” is the one who will do the job?
When the lights are at their peak, when the stakes are at their highest, you see the same Ranger as any other night. No pressure. No pulse. Just locked in and ready to go.
We will see if this is the case tomorrow.
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