PHILADELPHIA — It was 143 nights ago when the Phillies floated into first place, a position they never relinquished in the National League East. That night, their $300 million shortstop suffered a hamstring injury that would sideline him for six weeks. Their $172 million top-of-the-rotation starter lasted only four innings. They still won. An overcast Sunday night in May did not feel like the beginning of something great.
These Phillies had been defined by how much harder they made everything. They dug enormous holes in 2022 and 2023 that required them to spend summers scratching and clawing just to qualify for the postseason.
“The last two years, we really fought to find it,” Kyle Schwarber said last week. “We fought a different battle this year, which is a cool thing.”
The Phillies won their first division in 13 years Monday night by beating the Chicago Cubs, 6-2, because they started the season better than almost every Phillies team before them. For the last four months, their lead never shrank below five games. They dethroned the standard-setting Atlanta Braves, who had won six consecutive division titles but suffered vast injuries in 2024 to their star players.
The Phillies returned almost the exact roster that won 90 games a season ago and fell one win short of a second National League pennant in two years. Maybe they won the division because they were conditioned to think like they were behind.
“We’re kind of used to fighting back all season, and that’s kind of what drove us,” Zack Wheeler said. “This year, we were just in a little different place. But we still had that mindset — like we’re still chasing somebody.”
They won 36 of their first 50 games, the first Phillies team to ever do that. They were 63-37 through 100 games; the 2015 Phillies won 63 games the entire season. They have flirted with the best record in baseball all season and, in true Phillies fashion, they did make things harder by slogging through an 8-18 summertime stretch.
If not for that, these Phillies could have authored the greatest regular season in the 142-year history of the franchise. They’ll settle for one of the best. It’s their first division title since 2011.
“I feel like the experience the past two years with the postseason helped us this year,” said Aaron Nola, who allowed two runs in six innings during Monday’s clincher. “When we were on that really good stretch and winning a lot, the energy in here wasn’t, ‘Oh we’re in first place.’ I feel like we kept taking it series by series and we never really got content with being in first place. And that’s what propelled us to this position we’re in right now.”
They demolished inferior teams to begin the season; they had seven series sweeps by the first week of June. But they’ve also gone 50-40 against teams currently .500 or better. That record trails only the New York Yankees and Milwaukee Brewers.
“We’d sweep a series and then we’d sweep another series,” Nola said. “On to the next series. It wasn’t like, ‘Oh sick, we just swept two series.’ It was just honestly game-by-game and series-by-series. I know it sounds so cliche, but it really was.”
“Still fighting, right?” Wheeler said. “To keep first place, you need to win every game to keep that distance just in case that month-and-a-half (stumble) does happen. We made some space for ourselves.”
When Wheeler and Nola have started, the Phillies are 39-24 — a 100-win pace. They stood atop a rotation that morphed into one of the league’s elite units thanks to progress by Cristopher Sánchez and Ranger Suárez. Those four starters have combined for a 3.12 ERA.
There were unexpected contributions along the way — from Spencer Turnbull’s April to Edmundo Sosa’s May and Sánchez’s June. The Phillies boasted a franchise-record eight All-Stars — including two setup relievers who still have sub-2.00 ERAs. Jeff Hoffman and Matt Strahm epitomized the efficient dominance of this roster.
Most of these Phillies appeared in a World Series before capturing a division title. The ring is the goal, but winning a division reflects consistent work over six months. Nick Castellanos was on a division winner — the 2014 Detroit Tigers — during his rookie season. Ten years later, he had a better perspective on what it meant for this Phillies team.
“We had good camaraderie from the jump,” Castellanos said. “I think we started having a lot of fun. Everybody knew their role right away. The veterans were playing with a presence of consistency, right? Just going about their work, focused on winning.”
The Phillies’ identity formed over two years as a persistent underdog. They wielded it in a different way this season.
“That’s kind of what makes us click as players and a team,” Wheeler said. “We fought back those past two years and did something with it. I think we just kind of had that same mindset.”
(Photo of Kyle Schwarber rounding the bases after hitting a home run in the third inning: Matt Slocum / Associated Press)
