PHILADELPHIA — After driving a ball 103.8 mph through a 17-mph crosswind and into the left-field seats in the fourth inning Friday night, Rhys Hoskins did what must have felt natural to him in the moment.
He spiked his bat.
It is football season, after all.
Hoskins was drafted and developed by the Phillies. He got to the majors in 2017, before the club’s rebuilding process was far enough along to stall. So, to him — and also Aaron Nola, whose time on the active roster dates back to 2015, longer than any of his teammates — the last week of September really is time to think about football. Around here, baseball’s postseason has always been more conceptual than realistic.
But Hoskins and Nola can see it now. They can feel it. The magic number to clinch a wild card has dipped into single digits, and the two homegrown stars chopped away at it by slugging and slinging the Phillies to a 9-1 trouncing of the playoff-bound Atlanta Braves before 28,013 on a chilly night that only enhanced a postseason sensation that hasn’t existed at Citizens Bank Park in, oh, about 10 years.
With 12 games to go, any combination of nine Phillies victories and Milwaukee Brewers losses will secure the Phillies’ first playoff berth since 2011.
In winning a second consecutive game over their division rival, the Phillies scored two more runs than they did in three games last weekend in Atlanta. Never mind that the Braves remained without Ronald Acuña Jr., who missed a second consecutive game with back spasms. Nola held them to four singles in six innings before Nick Nelson and Connor Brogdon combined for the last nine outs.
But if Nola set the tone, Hoskins provided the power. Twice.
Braves starter Jake Odorizzi was one strike from getting out of the second inning with having allowed only two runs. And Hoskins had only three hits in his previous 23 at-bats. But Odorizzi hung a 91-mph fastball and Hoskins banged it into left field for a two-run double that stretched the margin to 4-0 and his career RBI total to 400.
Fast forward two innings. Odorizzi still was in the game when Hoskins came to the plate with one out. This time, Odorizzi left a slider over the middle of the plate, and Hoskins didn’t miss the chance to make it 6-0 and collect his 300th career extra-base hit.
Cue the bat spike.
The whole scene brought to mind something Hoskins talked about a few years ago. Standing in a hallway off the Phillies’ spring training clubhouse in Clearwater, Fla., he pointed out a panoramic photo that captures the moment they won the World Series in 2008.
“I don’t want to hear about it anymore,” Hoskins said then of the electric playoff atmosphere. “I want to feel it.”
It’s getting closer.
Mr. September
Don’t look now, but Nola has a 2.08 ERA in four starts this month.
Dogged by critics for poor Septembers over the last four seasons, Nola lacked his typical precision command, matching his season high with three walks. But he picked up the baton from Ranger Suárez and relievers Zach Eflin and José Alvarado in the series opener and muted a high-scoring Braves offense.
Nola is scheduled to start next Thursday in Chicago followed by Oct. 4 in the season’s penultimate game in Houston. The Phillies would prefer to clinch before then so they could line up Nola to start Game 2 of a best-of-three wild-card round.
Harper keeps slumping
Bryce Harper drove in the Phillies’ final run with a sacrifice fly. But his frustrations at the plate continued with two strikeouts.
Harper is 3 for 31 with 13 strikeouts in his last eight games.
“I think he’s just caught in between right now. It’s just timing,” interim manager Rob Thomson said. “He’ll get it back.”
Smart Alec
En route to finishing 3 for 4, Alec Bohm was credited with an RBI triple when Braves center fielder Michael Harris II dropped the ball as he crashed into the scoreboard in right-center field.
But Bohm’s biggest play of the game came on the bases. He made a smart read around second base and went from first to third on Brandon Marsh’s single to right field. Two batters later, Bohm scored the Phillies’ first run on Bryson Stott’s sacrifice fly.
