For most of the season, the National League East race looked like it would come down to the wire. However, everything changed in the last 10 days.
The surging Philadelphia Phillies can clinch the division for a second straight year Sunday afternoon in the finale of their weekend series with the visiting Kansas City Royals.
Philadelphia (89-60) has won nine of its last 10 games, while the New York Mets (76-73) have dropped eight in a row and nine of their last 10. The Phillies can clinch the NL East with a win or a New York loss on Sunday.
The Phillies also sit two games behind the Milwaukee Brewers (91-58) for the top seed in the NL.
“We want to wrap things up, get to where we want to be,” said Kyle Schwarber, who hit his 51st home run in Saturday’s 8-6 triumph over the Royals. “Obviously, we want to have one of the byes, we want to get back to full strength, but there’s still a lot of baseball to be played and we’ve got to take care of business.”
Brandon Marsh drove in three runs for Philadelphia on Saturday, while trade-deadline acquisition Harrison Bader contributed three hits to notch his sixth straight multi-hit game.
“He’s been a really big addition for us,” Schwarber said of Bader.
Meanwhile, Kansas City (74-75) has lost six of its last seven games. The Royals’ standout on Saturday was Salvador Perez, who homered twice to give him 300 for his career. He also drove in three runs to bring his MLB total to an even 1,000.
“Just to know how hard he’s worked, how special he is to this team, to the organization, to the city,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “I’m really happy for him.”
Philadelphia starter Aaron Nola (4-8, 6.24 ERA) will try to silence Perez and the Kansas City lineup.
After his first nine starts — with not many quality outings mixed in — Nola spent more than three months on the injured list due to rib and ankle injuries. In his first four starts since returning from the IL, the right-hander picked up a pair of wins but generally did not look crisp.
However, in Monday’s start against the Mets, Nola allowed just three hits over six shutout innings with seven strikeouts — his most since coming back from the injuries.
“He just threw so well tonight,” Philadelphia manager Rob Thomson said. “… I thought he was really good.”
“I hadn’t had a game like this in quite some time,” added Nola, who is 0-2 with an 8.71 ERA in 10 1/3 innings over two career starts against Kansas City.
The Royals will counter with rookie Noah Cameron (7-7, 3.00), who will be facing Philadelphia for the first time in his career.
The 26-year-old left-hander is coming off one of his best starts of the season. He held the Cleveland Guardians to two runs and six hits over seven innings last Tuesday, striking out eight without a walk.
However, Kansas City lost that game 2-0, leaving Cameron without a win in nearly a month.
“It hurts,” Cameron said. “Definitely, those losses hurt worse than blowouts. It’s part of it.”
–Field Level Media
