Phillies lock the No. 2 seed in National League after loss to Nationals

Scott Lauber, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Sep 28, 2024

Published in Baseball

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WASHINGTON — James Wood is the Next Big Thing. Emphasis on big. He’s 6-foot-7, with long arms and endless legs. He has speed, easy left-handed power, and a reserved spot in the Nationals’ lineup for years.

And for two at-bats Saturday, he was no different than most hitters.

He had no chance against Zack Wheeler.

Wheeler was making his final case to win the Cy Young Award, and for five innings, the Phillies ace’s closing argument was up there with Atticus Finch and Lt. Daniel Caffey. He sliced and diced the Nationals, piling up the strikeouts, allowing three baserunners, none beyond first base.

But Wood was the coveted prize in the Nationals’ big Juan Soto trade for a reason. So, after looking lost in a third-inning strikeout, he stepped to the plate in the sixth and hit a two-strike fastball that caught slightly too much of the plate the other way to left field for a two-run homer.

And then, in the eighth inning, he lined a leadoff triple to right field and scored the decisive run that sent the Phillies to a 6-3 loss at sold-out Nationals Park.

The penultimate game of the season meant little to the Phillies, except that the loss locked them into the No. 2 seed in the National League. At 94-67, they can’t catch the Dodgers, who will finish with the best record and would host a potential Game 7 of the NL Championship Series.

As the No. 2 seed, the Phillies will face the winner of the NL Central-winning Brewers’ wild-card series against the No. 6-seeded team, which could still be the Mets, Braves, or Diamondbacks.

But the game meant plenty to Wheeler. He received a handshake from manager Rob Thomson after 6 1/3 innings, which got him to exactly 200 for the season, a mark that was important to him. He scattered three hits and two walks, gave up only the two runs on Wood’s homer, and finished with a 2.57 ERA, 224 strikeouts, and a league-leading 0.955 WHIP.

Wheeler might not win the Cy Young, but he has made the race with Braves lefty Chris Sale as close as possible.

Trea Turner tied the game in the eighth inning with a two-run homer. Otherwise, the most that the Phillies’ offense stirred was when Bryce Harper took exception to something one of the Nationals’ players said after an eighth-inning strikeout, fueling a benches- and bullpens-emptying dust-up that didn’t feature any fireworks.

If Wood got the last laugh against Wheeler, his third-inning at-bat revealed how nasty the Phillies’ ace looked.

Wood saw three pitches from the Phillies’ ace: a 96 mph heater at the knees that clipped the outer edge for a called strike; another 96 mph fastball that rode up and in for a called strike; a low-and-inside curveball at 85 mph.

After waving at the breaking pitch, Wood turned around and walked to the dugout. He smirked.

He must’ve figured something out.

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