Phillies punch ticket to postseason by clobbering Mets

Phillies punch ticket to postseason by clobbering Mets originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

NEW YORK — They say third time’s a charm.

After falling short consecutive nights to pull out a win, the Phillies finally jumped over the hurdle, crossing off the first of three important goals on the club’s end-of-season checklist — clinching a playoff spot.

The Phillies punched their ticket to the playoffs for a third consecutive season with an explosive 12-2 win over the Mets. It’s just the third time the Phillies have secured postseason appearances in three straight seasons (1967-78, 2007-11).

There were a few scattered glasses of champagne, Rob Thomson toasted his team but aside from that, it was business as usual in the clubhouse.

With bigger goals looming on the horizon, Topper still wanted to take a minute and share his gratitude for his club.

“It’s difficult to get to this point,” Thomson said. “There’s a lot of really good teams out there. You gotta overcome obstacles, whether it’s travel, or injuries or births, whatever it is. These guys have done that. These guys are tough. I just wanted to thank them. I wanted to thank our staff. … I just wanted to toast them.”

Red October is the destination … but there are a few more stops to make along the way.

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 2024 road numbers have been a bit of an eyesore — and in his 14th start in any location not called Citizens Bank Park — those struggles continued early (though he settled soon after).

On his third pitch of the night, he gave up a home run to Jose Inglesias. This was Inglesias’ first-career leadoff home run, his fourth of the season.

Sanchez wasn’t able to retire the next two batters he faced and it resulted in the Phillies getting out of the first inning in a two-run deficit for the second consecutive night. 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 popup from J.T. Realmuto to load the bases with no outs.

Only one run crossed the plate on an Edmundo Sosa sacrifice fly. If they didn’t win the game, that would come back to haunt them.

The two-out run production in New York has been 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. Harper scored on a Castellanos double but a wild throw caught catcher Luis Torrens off guard — so Bohm attempted to score. The ball bounced off the wall right back to Torrens … and the only thing that bounced more was Bohm as he tried to avoid the tag from Mets pitcher David Peterson.

Seriously, he tried swerving the tag by leaping out of his slide to hop over Peterson and touch the plate. It was an impressive effort but Bohm was ultimately tagged out. If they didn’t win the game, *that* 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 fielded it no problem. Of course, he thought it was 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 from Bohm.

Remember those Sanchez struggles in the first inning? Kiss ‘em goodbye.

He did find himself in a jam in the bottom of the fifth inning, loading the bases with two outs by giving up a double and a pair of walks … but got out of the inning unscathed.

The magic number to win the division now sits at one.

If the Phillies are able to at least split the four-game series with the Mets, they’ll head home for the final homestand of the regular season with their first division title since 2011.

Two years ago, Ranger Suarez made his way out of the bullpen to secure the final outs in the NLCS to send his club to the World Series.

Saturday, he’ll have a chance to set the tone into October and get his club the NL East crown.

Suarez has been shaky since returning from the 15-day injured list August 24 for lower back soreness. In his five starts since, the left handed pitcher is 2-2 with a 4.44 ERA. He’s only gone deeper than five innings once.

So, how can we be so certain “Mr. Rager” is the one to get the job done?

When the lights are the brightest, when the stakes are the highest, you see the same Ranger as any other night. No pressure. No pulse. Just locked in and ready to go.

We’ll see if that’s the case tomorrow.