The Phillies can check off winning the NL East for the first time since 2011. Next? ‘We want to finish this.’
Aaron Nola has pitched the Phillies to clinching victories before, but not like this. For the first time in 4,755 days, the Phillies are division champs. Next: Securing a bye in the wild-card round.
After coming up short in back-to-back tries to win the National League East, the Phillies turned Monday night to a tried-and-true formula. They put Aaron Nola on the mound, at home, with a trace of a chill in the early-autumn air.
Been here, done this, right?
Well, not quite this.
Nola has pitched the Phillies to clinching victories before. He’s actually made it a habit. They sprayed beer and smoked stogies after securing two wild-card berths and five postseason series in the last two years, and Nola started four of the games that led to those clubhouse-crushing ragers.
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But this? The Phillies hadn’t done this since 2011. Their last division title predated even the arrival of their longest-tenured player. So, when new-guy closer Carlos Estévez got Michael Busch to fly to right fielder Nick Castellanos at 9:16 p.m. to cap a 6-2 victory over the playing-out-the-string Cubs, well, something happened that the youngest among the sellout crowd of 42,386 hadn’t seen.
“A division title’s a big deal,” owner John Middleton told The Inquirer from a slightly drier corner of the clubhouse as his red, MLB-issued “We Own The East” T-shirt dripped with bubbly. “To win it makes it that much more special. I mean, you’re in the playoffs. But you really have to play well for six months to wind up with a division title. And that’s what we did.”
Raise another flag, then, one of those crisp white ones with “2024″ stenciled in blue, over Ashburn Alley.
For the first time in 4,755 days — and for the 12th time in their history — the Phillies are NL East champs.
“I’ve always wanted to win the division since I came here,” said Nola, the Phillies’ first-round pick in 2014 who chose to stay by signing a seven-year, $172 million contract last November. “Obviously seeing the Braves win the past [six] years, and they’ve done it on our field a couple times, I always said to myself, ‘It’d be nice to seal the division.’ That’s why I signed back here. I love it over here.”
Two of their regular-season goals down (make the playoffs: check; win the division: check), the Phillies have one left. They want to lock up a bye in the treacherous best-of-three wild-card round. It’s looking good. With five games to play, they lead the Brewers by 3½ games.
Assuming they get the bye, the Phillies would host Game 1 of the best-of-five divisional round on Oct. 5.
» READ MORE: Murphy: Phillies division title party is unspoiled by unfinished business. Now, get the first round bye.
But there’s time to clear your calendar for another Red October. In the meantime, soak in the images from Game 157, the third-fastest division clinching in team history.
Nola, reliable as ever, delivered six scoreless innings before yielding two runs in the seventh. And When Castellanos closed his glove on Busch’s fly ball, Nola passed Cole Hamels for the most wins ever by a pitcher in the 20-year history of Citizens Bank Park.
Estévez, acquired from the last-place Angels a few days before the July 30 trade deadline, pumped his fist and hugged J.T. Realmuto. The Phillies streamed out of the dugout, gathered together behind the mound, posed for a team photo.
The Phanatic charged on to the field, of course, with a 2024 pennant.
And after being denied a celebration for two nights in New York, the Phillies let loose. Hard. As usual.
Backup catcher Garrett Stubbs donned his celebratory overalls, while Bryce Harper and others ditched their shirts completely. Bryson Stott, a Las Vegas native, walked around with a UNLV football helmet.
“It’s tough to go wire to wire, man,” Harper said after the Phillies spent 143 consecutive days (since May 3) atop the NL East. “This is a really good division. Obviously the Braves have won it the last six years. That goes to show how good of an organization they are.
“That was our main goal in spring training, to win the division and get that first-round bye and do all the things we can to set us up for the postseason. The division was the first thing.”
But it can’t be the only thing. Not anymore.
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When Nola tossed 6⅔ scoreless innings in Game 160 in Houston in 2022, the Phillies made their return to the playoffs after a decadelong absence. It was an unexpectedly charmed ride to Game 6 of the World Series.
And when Clinchmeister Nola delivered 6⅔ solid innings in a walk-off victory in Game 157 last year to win a wild-card berth again, the Phillies validated their emergence as contenders. But their run came to a screeching halt — at home, no less — in Game 7 of the NL Championship Series.
They ran back the roster, and in spring training, defined their mission: Win the World Series.
“We’ve got experience, and we’ve got expectations for ourselves,” Kyle Schwarber, who followed Realmuto’s two-run homer in the second inning by banging a solo shot in the third, said over the celebratory din. “We came close two years in a row. We want to get there. We want to finish this.”
Said Middleton: “Of the three years, this is by far the most complete team. And frankly, I think it’s the most complete team we’ve had since ‘11. I really do.”
It will be a sprint from here to the World Series. But the regular season is an endurance test, which makes a division title so darned difficult to achieve.
The Phillies clinched it with their 93rd victory, and in a quiet moment in his office, manager Rob Thomson shouted out the understudies — Kody Clemens, Cal Stevenson, Weston Wilson, third-string catcher Rafael Marchán — who spelled the stars when they were injured or needed rest.
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There were newcomers, too. Take lefty reliever Tanner Banks, for instance. He could’ve been wallowing in the White Sox’s historic 120-loss misery, but after being acquired in a deadline trade, he stood in a puddle of beer with goggles pressed to his head.
And Estévez couldn’t have imagined he would get the division-clinching out for the Phillies on April 30 when he gave up ninth-inning homers to Castellanos and Johan Rojas in an Angels loss.
“It feels amazing, man,” Estévez said. “Knowing that they trust me that much to give me the baseball in that time of the game to finish a really important game for us, it’s great for me. I’ve been working to get back to the playoffs. Only took me six years. But we’re here. I’m ready for it.”
The next test starts next week.
“I never take it for granted, I’ll tell you that,” Nola said. “We’re obviously in a little different position this year than we were last year — and the last year prior to that. I feel like we keep getting better each year, which is really nice. We’re going to enjoy tonight, celebrate, and get back to work tomorrow and try to keep winning.”