A magnificent season for the right hander, worthy of postseason awards.
In the eighth, the offense decided that they no longer wanted him saddled with a loss on his final start of the season, awakening thanks to Edmundo Sosa being hit by a pitch and Trea Turner taking a changeup from Jose Ferrer and depositing it into the left field bullpen.
Jeff Hoffman was brought in to keep the lead there, but he only needed six pitches before he gave it right back. Wood tripled to start the inning, then was brought home by Keibert Ruiz singling to untie the game almost as quickly as it was tied.
Folks - James Wood is going to be a problem for a while.
Joey Gallo hit a three run home run to make it 6-2, effectively ending the game. The Phillies did make it interesting in the ninth when Nick Castellanos tripled to start their half and scored on a groundout by Alec Bohm, but that was it.
The first seed in the National League belongs to the Dodgers and the Phillies will need to be content with a bye. It’s a solid job by them to get there after their midseason swoon, so tomorrow will likely be all about personal goals the players have. Is there some kind of milestone that needs to be achieved? If so, that player is probably in the lineup. Otherwise, it’ll be some backups getting a day.
This wasn’t a thrilling game, but they truly look like they’re just ready to get a break for a bit. Nothing wrong with that.
Would the Phillies have preferred to have the first overall seed in the playoffs? Of course. Once the Dodgers took two of three from the Padres, with only the Rockies in their way, the chances of them attaining that final checkmark on an otherwise stellar season seemed slim. Even though they were also facing a weaker opponent in the Nationals, the Phillies just seemed to be facing an uphill battle.
Today, James Wood put a stamp on the Phillies’ chances almost by himself.
Now, Zack Wheeler was on the mound for Philadelphia, heightening the chances of a Phillies victory. He was up to the task too. Striking out the first hitter of the game on three pitches, he had that look about him that the Nationals were in trouble if they had intentions of scoring today. Unfortunately for the Phillies, the enigmatic Mackenzie Gore also was standing tall on the mound for Washington. Neither pitcher allowed much of anything through five innings. You’d be forgiven had you chosen to doze off during this stretch.
One of us did.
But as Gore kept the Phillies at arm’s length, the sixth inning saw the Nationals break through against Wheeler. Luis Garcia had a one out single that brought the uber-talented Wood to the plate. A good pitch by Wheeler wasn’t good enough and the game was now in the favor of Washington.
It stayed that way for a few innings more. Wheeler got one out in the seventh inning before being lifted by Rob Thomson, a gesture by the manager to let him attain the vaunted 200 inning mark on the season.
Phillies are locked in at the two seed as James Woods and the Nationals dash their hopes of securing the top seed in the NL.
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