WASHINGTON (AP) — Kyle Schwarber and Weston Wilson each drove in two runs, Aaron Nola earned his 14th victory and the NL East champion Philadelphia Phillies avoided a series sweep and closed out the regular season with a 6-3 win over the Washington Nationals on Sunday.
Philadelphia finished 95-67, the second-best record in the National League behind the Los Angeles Dodgers (98-64), and were five games better than last season. The Phillies’ victory total was the team’s highest since winning 102 games in 2011 --- the last time they won the division.
The Phillies have a bye in the first round of the playoffs and will face either NL Central champion Milwaukee or the NL’s third wild card in a division series scheduled to start Saturday in Philadelphia.
“I was really happy with the way we finished,” Philadelphia manager Rob Thomson said.
Luis García Jr. homered in the first inning for Washington, which went 71-91 for the second straight season.
“Nobody wants to go home at this time of year,” Washington manager Dave Martinez said. “You want to keep playing, but the effort was definitely there this year and they played hard. Our young guys got better and they are going to continue to get better. Good things to come.”
Nola (14-8) allowed three runs in five-plus innings and struck out seven. A day after teammate Zack Wheeler ended his regular season with 200 innings pitched, Nola came within two outs of matching the feat. The 31-year-old right-hander was lifted after giving up a leadoff triple to Dylan Crews in the sixth.
“It’s a goal every year to get to 200-plus,” Nola said. “It didn’t work out, but that’s all right. One of our goals was to win the division and we did that and finish the last game of the season off strong in a good way with a win.”
Phillies reliever José Ruiz loaded the bases with no outs in the ninth before striking out García and James Wood. Kody Clemens then hauled in Juan Yepez’s long fly to left, ending the game and sealing Ruiz’s first save in 264 career appearances.
The Phillies loaded the bases with no outs in the first against Jake Irvin before Bryson Stott and Alec Bohm had back-to-back RBI groundouts.
Philadelphia didn’t have another baserunner until the fifth, when it again loaded the bases. Schwarber poked a two-run single to left, and two batters later, Wilson ripped a two-run double to right to end Irvin’s outing.
Irvin (10-14), who passed teammate Patrick Corbin for the NL lead in losses, allowed six runs and struck out three in 4 1/3 innings.
García and Yepez had RBI singles in the fifth against Nola.
Philadelphia rested regulars Bryce Harper and J.T. Realmuto. Nick Castellanos became the first member of the Phillies to play in 162 games in a season since Freddy Galvis in 2017. Castellanos was lifted in the second inning.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Phillies: Thomson said RHP Carlos Estévez was unavailable because of illness. … OF Austin Hays (sore back) was out of the lineup for the second consecutive day. … OF Johan Rojas (illness) remained away from the team. … Philadelphia recalled INF Buddy Kennedy from the team’s spring training complex and optioned LHP Tyler Gilbert to the spring training complex.
ATTENDANCE BUMP
Washington’s season attendance was 1,967,302, a 5.4% increase over its 2023 total of 1,865,832.
UP NEXT
Phillies: Philadelphia will have an intrasquad scrimmage Wednesday before hosting the opener of the NLDS on Saturday against either Milwaukee or the NL’s third wild card.
Nationals: Open spring training games on Feb. 22 against Houston in West Palm Beach, Florida.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB
Patrick Stevens, The Associated Press
