WASHINGTON – Rob Thomson will spend Monday in Philadelphia, cooped up, he says, in his Citizens Bank Park office, preparing his Phillies team for their date in the postseason. Yet in reality, the manager has the day off. Especially considering what two of his potential playoff opponents will be up to come the afternoon.
For the first time in this frenetic three-year run on Broad Street, the Phillies are National League East champions. They’ve earned the right to put up their feet, stay hot with a Wednesday intrasquad game, and let their two potential opponents battle their way through the best-of-three wild-card series shootout. The Phillies will never know if winning the East might have saved enough gas in the tank for them to overcome the Houston Astros in a 2022 World Series they lost in six games.
Or held the line in the 2023 National League Championship Series, when they blew leads of 2-0 and 3-2 to lose a seven-game gut-puncher to the upstart Arizona Diamondbacks . No, this time they’ll gladly “worry” about whether the club will get rusty over a five-day layoff, rest their bones and hand the ball to Cy Young Award hopeful Zack Wheeler one week from now in Game 1 of the NL Division Series. Follow every MLB game: Latest MLB scores, stats, schedules and standings.
Meanwhile, the wild-card hopeful Arizona Diamondbacks are playing for their lives this weekend against the San Diego Padres. The New York Mets and Atlanta Braves are trying to hang onto playoff position.
