The Phillies check another box that could be important to winning at the end of the season – NBC Sports Philadelphia

WASHINGTON — The moment Rob Thomson and every Phillies fan wanted to avoid almost occurred in the second inning of Sunday’s regular-season finale against the Nationals, when Aaron Nola was hit by a 99 mph line drive to right became.

Drew Millas’ batted ball bounced off Nola’s right oblique/hip and went into an infield single to put runners on the corners. Thomson and Phillies assistant athletic trainer Joe Rauch immediately came out to check on him, and Nola stayed in the game. With a caught steal and a strikeout, he was out of the inning a few pitches later.

“We came out of it healthy,” Thomson said. “Nola took the line, but she didn’t catch a bone or anything. There’s some skin on it, he’ll have a bruise, but he’s fine. I tried to get him through 5 2/3 (to get to 200 innings), but I told him we wouldn’t get past 100 pitches.”

The Phillies have been the No. 2 seed in the National League playoffs since Friday night, but this latest win checked another box that could matter, giving them home-field advantage over the Yankees in the World Series if both teams make it It.

However, there are still many steps to be taken before this can become a reality and Thomson did not approach Sunday as if it were a crucial game. Bryce Harper and JT Realmuto had the last day off. Nick Castellanos made his 162nd start but retired in the second inning. Trea Turner exited in the seventh.

“It’s pretty cool to say it out loud,” Castellanos said of the accomplishment.

The Phillies won 6-3 and finished 95-67. It is their sixth-highest win total in franchise history. The game ended with Kody Clemens making a game-saving catch with the bases loaded and bouncing it into the left field wall.

The Phils have a bye during the wild card round and won’t play again until Saturday. The Phillies will take Monday off, host a mandatory team practice at Citizens Bank Park on Tuesday, play an intrasquad game on Wednesday, have a voluntary practice on Thursday and another mandatory practice on Friday at the same time as Saturday’s game.

“Don’t be so cavalier and think of these five days as a vacation and not just a break,” Castellanos said. “Continue to stay focused and focused on what we have planned for this day.

“I think we just know how important every day is. Win today and tomorrow will take care of itself. We have a lot of people who accept that philosophy.”

The Phils’ NLDS opponent will be either the Brewers, Mets or Diamondbacks. The Mets and Braves meet in a doubleheader on Monday in Atlanta to decide the final two playoff spots. The Phillies can’t face the Braves in the NLDS because if Atlanta makes the playoffs, it would be a No. 5 seed.

Nola allowed a home run to the first batter he faced, Luis Garcia Jr., on Sunday, but pitched through five innings for his 14th win. He finished the season with 199⅓ innings, two outs shy of 200. Thomson tried to let Nola reach the milestone, as Zack Wheeler did on Saturday, but Nola struggled through the fifth inning and was retired after a leadoff triple in the sixth taken from the game.

In the first two games of the series, the Phillies were quiet offensively, loading the bases with no outs in the first inning Sunday, pushing past two runs and then scoring four more runs in the fifth. Kyle Schwarber doubled and matched his career high with 104 RBI from last season.

The Phillies held a 33-33 lead after the All-Star break and lost seven of their last 11 games, but those facts alone don’t spell doom. The Diamondbacks scored a total of three runs, lost four in a row at the end of last season and then went to the World Series. The 2022 Phillies fell 13-2 at the end of the regular season to an Astros team that had nothing to offer, then steamrolled through the playoffs, winning 10 of 12.

Now comes the real stakes. These guys have been waiting for October since the last pitch of the 2023 NLCS and it is finally here.

“I learned that the playoffs are like their own animal,” Castellanos said. “It’s a new beginning for everyone.”