Phillies Looking For Extended Postseason

by Marc Narducci | Sep 29, 2025

Now the fun time begins for the Phillies after a well-deserved rest.

The Phillies finished an impressive regular season, earning the second-best record in MLB, 96-66. Only the Milwaukee Brewers would have home field advantage in any playoff series against the Phillies.

The best development for the Phillies was that Trea Turner returned for the season finale, playing five innings in the 2-1 win over the Minnesota Twins in 10 innings. Turner saw his first action since suffering a hamstring injury on Sept. 7.

A healthy Turner is crucial to the Phillies chances. His third season with the Phillies was his best and it ended with him batting .304 and winning his second batting title.

Kyle Schwarber led the National League with 56 home runs and all of Major League Baseball with 132 RBI.

Cristopher Sanchez, the Game 1 starter for the Phillies, will likely finish runner-up to Paul Skenes for the National League Cy Young award. He went 13-5 with a 2.50 ERA, striking out 212 in 202 innings.

The Phillies will open action in the best-of-five National League Division Series on Saturday at Citizens Bank Park. Game time is not yet known, nor is the opponent. The Phillies will face the winner of the best-of-three wild card series between the Cincinnati Reds and Los Angeles Dodgers.

The wild card games will be Tuesday, Wednesday and if necessary, Thursday, all in Los Angeles. (For what it’s worth, the Phillies were 4-2 against the Dodgers in the regular season and 3-3 against the Reds.)

Other than Sanchez being the Game 1 starter, manager Rob Thomson hasn’t announced the rest of his playoff rotation. It’s likely that Ranger Suarez (12-8, 3.20) and Jesus Luzardo (15-7, 3.92) will be the other starters in the NLDS.

The way the NLDS is set up, the Phillies will only need three starting pitchers.

Here is the schedule.

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- A Show of Strength

With the state ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic, South Jersey is proving there’s more ways than one to put up a fight.

- Seizing the Moment

After the spring season was canceled last year due to the pandemic, these standout student-athletes from South Jersey are hoping to make the most of their opportunities in 2021.

Game 1: Saturday, Oct. 4 at Phillies
Game 2: Monday Oct. 6 at Phillies
Game 3: Wednesday, Oct. 8 at Dodgers/Reds
Game 4: Thursday, Oct. 9* at Dodgers/Reds
Game 5: Saturday, Oct. 11* at Phillies
*If necessary

This is not a revelation to suggest that one of the keys to the Phillies postseason is Bryce Harper. It will be his seventh season in the playoffs.

In his three playoff seasons with the Phillies, Harper is batting .325 with a 1.153 OPS.

During 34 playoff games with the Phillies, Harper has nine doubles, 12 home runs and 24 RBI.

Harper, by his standards, had a subpar regular season. He missed some time due to injury, but in 132 games and 501 at-bats, Harper’s slash line was .261/.357/.487 with 27 home runs and 75 RBI. He struck out 121 times and drew 70 walks.

Obviously, Schwarber would have to take his regular season performance into the postseason.

In his three Phillies seasons in the playoffs, has hit .220 but has a .933 OPS, with 12 home runs and 17 RBI in 118 at-bats.

Even without ace Zack Wheeler, the Phillies have the team capable of winning a World Series, but baseball is a crazy game. The Phillies could be eliminated in the NLDS if they go into a collective slump like the one that occurred last year against the New York Mets, when the Phillies lost the NLDS 3-games-to-1.

This is a veteran team with plenty of postseason experience and there should be justifiable optimism that this could be a fruitful postseason.

Photo: Courtesy of Phillies X/Twitter

Author: Marc Narducci

Phillies Looking For Extended Postseason

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