The rebuilding Washington Nationals have been locked into a fourth-place finish in the National League East heading into Sunday’s regular-season finale with the visiting Philadelphia Phillies. But manager Dave Martinez’s squad still can finish on a high note.
A win would give Washington (71-90) a series sweep of the NL East champs heading into the offseason.
The Nationals guaranteed themselves a series victory with a 6-3 win on Saturday, matching their 2023 win total in the process.
Rookie James Wood hit a two-run homer and also tripled and Joey Gallo hit a three-run home run to highlight a four-run eighth for the Nationals, who got another dazzling start from left-hander MacKenzie Gore.
“I love the energy,” Martinez said. “I love the excitement. I love the boys playing hard and not backing down. … I’ve never seen them give up once and today was a testament to that.”
The 24-year-old Gore (10-12) outdueled NL Cy Young Award contender Zack Wheeler, allowing just three singles over six shutout innings. Gore walked one and struck out nine, including the side in order — Kyle Schwarber, Trea Turner and Bryce Harper — in his final inning of the season. Gore allowed just one earned over 19 innings (0.47 ERA) in his final three starts while striking out 23.
“I’m really proud of the way he finished up,” Martinez said. “That’s a great building block for next year. He’s a guy who can win 18, 20 games for us. When he’s in the strike zone, he’s really good. Today he proved that.”
Wheeler wasn’t bad either, allowing just three hits, including a two-run, opposite-field homer by Wood in the sixth, over 6 1/3 innings to reach the 200-inning mark for the season. It marked the 11th consecutive start that Wheeler threw six-plus innings and allowed two or fewer runs, the first Phillies pitcher to accomplish that feat since 1893 when the mound was moved to its current distance.
Wheeler (16-7, 2.57 ERA, 225 strikeouts), who is slated to start next Saturday in Game 1 of the NL Division Series, also struck out 11, the fourth time this season he whiffed at least 10 in a game.
“I just told him it’s been a hell of a year,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said he told Wheeler when he came out to replace him in the seventh. “I mean, that’s Cy Young-worthy to me.”
Aaron Nola (13-8, 3.52), who has allowed two earned runs over 19 1/3 innings (0.93 ERA) in three starts against the Nationals this season, will start Sunday’s finale for the Phillies. Fellow right-hander Jake Irvin (10-13, 4.22 ERA), who is 0-2 with a 4.70 ERA in four career starts against Philadelphia, will start for Washington.
The Phillies (94-67) saw their chances of a No. 1 seed over the Los Angeles Dodgers (97-64) in the NL vanish with Saturday’s loss but Philadelphia can still clinch home-field advantage for a potential World Series matchup with the New York Yankees (93-68) with a win Sunday. The Phillies are a major-league-best 54-27 at home this season.
“It would have been nice to have home-field advantage throughout but we’ve won on the road too,” Thomson said. “We’ve just got to go out and play.”
