The scorching Phillies are on the verge of cementing the 2025 NL East crown.
The Phils won their sixth straight game in comeback fashion Saturday night at Citizens Bank Park, earning an 8-6 victory over the Royals.
Their NL East magic number sits at one ahead of Sunday afternoon’s series finale. The Mets remained in a dramatic free fall Saturday, blowing a 2-0 eighth-inning lead to the Rangers and losing an eighth consecutive game.
The Phillies would love to clinch at home.
“It’d be fantastic,” Kyle Schwarber said. “Our fans have been great all year, filling up for us. It doesn’t matter if it’s a Wednesday getaway or a Sunday night game, I feel like they’ve just been showing up for us. We feel the energy every single night and we latch onto those things.
“If we can do it at home in front of them, let them celebrate with us, that would be a really cool thing for us.”
Taijuan Walker tallied the win for the Phillies. He threw five innings, allowed seven hits and four runs, struck out three and walked one.
Walker looked on his way to a much cleaner start than his four-run first inning last time out against the Marlins, but the first inning’s final out was a struggle.
Vinnie Pasquantino doubled with two outs. A Maikel Garcia liner zoomed past Bryson Stott’s dive and into left-center field. Salvador Perez lifted a high full-count cutter 398 feet. All told, Walker wound up conceding three runs and five hits in the first.
“Honestly, I thought I made better pitches today in the first inning,” Walker said. “The cutter up and away, I thought it was a good pitch to Salvy. He just put a good swing on it. I look back at it and some of the pitches were on the black. … I’ve just really got to figure out that first inning because after that, I feel like I get in a good groove and kind of coast the rest of the way.”
The Phillies took no time to trim their deficit against Royals righty Ryan Bergert. Brandon Marsh delivered a two-out, two-RBI double to left in the bottom of the first. Over his past seven games, Marsh has eight extra-base hits and eight RBIs.
Perez did it again in the third inning. He ripped an 0-2 Walker splitter for his 300th career homer.
The Phils pulled to within 4-3 in their half of the third. Harrison Bader led off with a single to post a sixth consecutive game with multiple hits. He’s 15 for 29 over that stretch. After Schwarber and Bryce Harper walked, Bader sprinted home on J.T. Realmuto’s sacrifice fly.
The Royals brought in lefty reliever Angel Zerpa to begin the fifth inning and Schwarber clubbed his third pitch over the right-field fence. He’s at 51 home runs with 13 games to go.
Harper then walked, Realmuto reached on an infield single, and Marsh chopped a grounder to second that advanced both runners into scoring position. Nick Castellanos pinch-hit for Max Kepler and came through, hitting a fly ball to center that was easily deep enough to score Harper and put the Phils on top. Otto Kemp — yet another Phillie on a hot streak — followed by nailing an RBI double off of the left-field wall.
Walker gave the Phillies scoreless fourth and fifth innings. Tanner Banks was flawless in the sixth and Schwarber provided an insurance run in the bottom of the frame with an RBI single.
Kansas City got a run back against Matt Strahm in the seventh … and Marsh replied by clobbering a leadoff homer. As a team, the Phils have 42 runs and 64 hits across the last five games.
The Royals stayed in the contest and scored on David Robertson in the eighth, but Jhoan Duran locked down his 14th save in 15 opportunities as a Phillie.
While there’s bigger games on the horizon, the 89-60 Phillies’ performances of late haven’t lacked focus whatsoever.
“We’ve got goals beyond just getting in or winning the division,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said pregame. “So we’ve just got to keep going, keep winning series. Including this one, we’ve got five series left. And that’s the goal, to win every series.”
Read the full article here