PHILADELPHIA -- One way or another, it ends on Sunday.
The Phillies will either clinch a National League Wild Card and a fifth consecutive trip to the postseason by winning (or even losing) the 162nd game of the regular season, or they will suffer the second-worst collapse in franchise history, miss the playoffs entirely and enter an offseason of potentially seismic changes for a franchise with one of the highest payrolls in baseball history.
The Phillies lost to the Rays on Saturday night at Citizens Bank Park, 12-1. The Diamondbacks lost, 10-7, in San Diego, giving the Phils a one-game lead over Arizona with one game to play. If Arizona and Philadelphia finish the season tied, the D-backs reach the postseason on the tiebreaker.
Fortunately for the Phillies, Zack Wheeler will start on Sunday.
Unfortunately, Wheeler might need to be perfect. The Phillies’ offense snapped a 21-inning scoreless streak with an unearned run in the seventh inning. It was their longest scoreless streak since June 22-26, 2025, when they went 26 innings without scoring a run.
Unfortunately, too, the Phillies stumbled so badly down the stretch that Wheeler will no longer be able to start Game 1 of the NL Wild Card Series on Tuesday. In fact, he might not start in the best-of-three series at all, unless he pitches on short rest.
But the Phillies have to get to the postseason first.
It’s hard to believe, but they were in a three-way tie with the Padres and Cubs on Tuesday with five games to play. Arizona was four games behind them.
Earlier this week, when everything still felt normal, the Phillies shuffled their rotation, moving Andrew Painter to Thursday and Cristopher Sánchez to Friday. It allowed Philadelphia to pitch Painter out of the bullpen this weekend, if the situation presented itself, and Sánchez to start Game 2 of the NL Wild Card Series on Wednesday.
To make those plans work, the Phillies pushed their bullpen game to Saturday.
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The Phillies needed a bullpen game because left-hander Jesús Luzardo is on the 15-day injured list with inflammation in his left elbow and because they have no starters in their system good enough to help. It’s why the Phils claimed right-hander José Urquidy off waivers from the White Sox last week and why they signed right-hander Nestor Cortes in August.
But Cortes didn’t show enough to earn a promotion. And Urquidy was perhaps too risky to start. He was designated for assignment twice this season.
So the Phillies started Nola on short rest for the first time in his career. Nola’s second-half turnaround has been one of the team’s best storylines. He went 3-5 with a 6.04 ERA in 17 starts through June 29, but he went 4-6 with a 3.12 ERA in his final 15 starts before Saturday.
“If anybody's built for this, it’s probably Nola,” Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly said before the game. “He’s a guy that's more old school than anybody.”
But Nola allowed a leadoff double to Yandy Díaz, a two-out, two-run home run to Junior Caminero and back-to-back doubles to Victor Mesa Jr. and Richie Palacios to put the Phillies into a 3-0 hole just six batters into the game.
Fans booed.
They didn’t stop as the offense did nothing while the bullpen allowed four runs in the fifth and three runs in the sixth to turn the game into a rout.
The Phillies had been fading slowly for weeks. They were 79-60 after the games of Sept. 1. They had the fourth-best record in the NL, a 6 1/2-game lead over Arizona for the third NL Wild Card and a 99.7% chance to make the postseason, according to FanGraphs.
It has been whittled down to one game now.