Phillies Beat Rays 7-3 to Clinch Final NL Wild Card

The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Tampa Bay Rays 7-3 on September 27 to claim the final National League playoff spot on the last day of the regular season.

Philadelphia had to win to get in. The team announced a moved start time of 2:30 p.m. ET, and the clubs played through a rain-soaked Sunday afternoon in Philadelphia, according to MLB.com.

Bryce Harper and Edmundo Sosa homered for the Phillies. Zack Wheeler took the mound for the clincher, and Jhoan Duran struck out Nick Fortes to end it, as shown in MLB video. Tampa Bay had blanked Philadelphia 2-0 just two days earlier on September 25.

It did not need to be this tense. Philadelphia could have locked up the berth as early as Wednesday, but then lost four straight and watched Arizona close fast on its wildcard lead before holding on, according to The Guardian. The win secured a fifth straight trip to the postseason for Philadelphia, per ESPN.

Team managing partner and CEO John Middleton described the final week as “a living hell in slow motion.”

What makes this stand out is how quickly relief replaced dread. A team that stumbled to the finish line now gets a clean record. October baseball resets every slump.

Next up is a best-of-three wildcard series, meaning the first team to win two games advances. Game 1 is Tuesday in Atlanta against the Braves. Games in the Philadelphia at Atlanta series will start at 2 p.m. and air on NBC.

Elsewhere, the Texas Rangers were knocked out on the final day with a 6-4 loss to the Minnesota Twins. Josh Bell homered and drove in three runs for Minnesota. Dean Kremer pitched seven innings of one-run ball.

Texas finished 80-82. The Rangers needed a win plus a Houston loss to the Athletics to stay alive. Houston held the division tiebreaker over Texas and was already up 8-0 on the Athletics in the eighth inning when the Texas game ended.

The rest of the wildcard round is set for Tuesday. The New York Yankees face the Boston Red Sox with potential games starting at about 8 p.m. ET on NBC. The Chicago White Sox at Houston series starts at 5 p.m. ET on NBCSN. The Chicago Cubs at San Diego series starts at 10 p.m. ET on NBCSN.

For fans, this means full days of win-or-go-home tension. Philadelphia survived Sunday. Now it has to win again Tuesday.