PHILADELPHIA — It was 143 days ago that the Phillies rose to the top of the National League East. They never relinquished that spot. That night, their $300 million shortstop injured his hamstring and was sidelined for six weeks. The leadoff pitcher of their $172 million starting rotation lasted just four innings. And yet the Phillies won. That cloudy Sunday night in May didn’t feel like the start of something great.
The Phillies at that time were defined by how difficult they made everything, digging themselves a giant hole in 2022 and 2023 and needing to work hard all summer to make the postseason.
“We’ve really been fighting to find that the last two years,” Kyle Schwarber said last week. “We’ve been fighting a different battle this year, which is great.”
The Phillies beat the Chicago Cubs 6-2 on Monday night to win their first division title in 13 years. The Phillies started the season better than nearly any previous Phillies team. Over the past four months, their lead had never been narrowed to less than five games. The Phillies dethroned the standard-setting Atlanta Braves, who had won the division six years in a row but suffered major injuries to their stars in 2024.
The Phillies returned with nearly the same lineup they had last season when they won 90 games and fell one win short of their second NL pennant in two years, and perhaps they won the division because they were conditioned to think like underdogs.
“We’ve been used to fighting back all season and that’s been what’s driven us,” Zack Wheeler said. “This year it was a little different, but we still had the mindset that we were going after somebody.”
They won 36 of their first 50 games, a first in Phillies history, and were 63-37 after 100 games. The 2015 Phillies won 63 games overall. They were in line for the best record in baseball all season, but in true Phillies fashion, struggled further with an 8-18 summer slump.
Without that, the Phillies may have had the best regular season in the franchise’s 142-year history, and they’ll be content with one of their best seasons ever, winning their first division title since 2011.
“I think our experience in the postseason the past two years helped us this year,” said Aaron Nola, who allowed just two runs in six innings in Monday’s final game. “When we were doing really well and we were winning a lot, there wasn’t that energy on the team that was, ‘Oh, we’re in first place.’ We were winning series after series and we weren’t happy being in first place. That’s what propelled us to this position we’re in now.”
The Phillies (93-64) have held first place since May 3. Aaron Nola’s team clinched the National League East title on Monday. (Eric Hartline/Imagine Images)
Going deeper
It’s been years of hard work for Aaron Nola and the NL East-winning Phillies
They dominated lower-ranked teams from the start of the season, winning seven series in a row by the first week of June. However, they currently have a 50-40 record against teams with a winning percentage of over 50%, second only to the New York Yankees and Milwaukee Brewers.
“We won one series, we won the next one,” Nola said, “and on to the next one. It wasn’t like, ‘Wow, we just won two series,’ it was just winning game by game, series by series, honestly. I know that sounds cliché, but it really was.”
“We’re still in contention, you know?” Wheeler said. “To stay in first place, we need to win every game to stay that close in case there’s a month and a half (of stumbling). We’ve created some space for ourselves.”
With Wheeler and Nola starting, the Phillies are 39-24 and on pace for 100 wins. They’re coming off a culmination of a starting lineup that’s been transformed into one of the league’s elite units by the progress of Christopher Sanchez and Ranger Suarez. The four starters have a combined ERA of 3.12.
There were some unexpected contributions along the way: Spencer Turnbull in April, Edmundo Sosa in May, Sanchez in June. The Phillies boasted a franchise-record eight All-Stars, including two set attack relief pitchers with sub-2.00 ERAs. Jeff Hoffman and Matt Strahm epitomized the roster’s efficient dominance.
Most Phillies players played in the World Series before winning a division. A championship ring is the goal, but winning a division is the result of six months of consistent work. Nick Castellanos was on a division-winning team (the 2014 Detroit Tigers) during his rookie season. A decade later, he has a deeper understanding of what that meant for a Phillies team.
“We got along well from the beginning,” Castellanos said. “I think we started having a lot of fun. Everyone quickly learned their roles. The veterans were playing really well, you know? They were just focused on winning and doing their jobs.”
The Phillies’ identity has been shaped over the last two years as perennial underdogs, and they have played that out differently this season.
“That’s what makes us work as players and as a team,” Wheeler said. “We’ve fought back the last two years and managed to get things done. I think we had the same mindset.”
(Photo of Kyle Schwarber rounding the bases after hitting a home run in the third inning by Matt Slocum/Associated Press)
