Kyle Schwarber and Weston Wilson each contributed two RBIs, while Aaron Nola earned his 14th win as the NL East champion Philadelphia Phillies avoided a series sweep by defeating the Washington Nationals 6-3 on Sunday.
Philadelphia finished the season with a record of 95-67, the second-best in the National League behind the Los Angeles Dodgers (98-64), improving by five games from last year. This win total is the highest for the Phillies since they won 102 games in 2011, the last time they took the division title.
The Phillies have a bye in the first round of the playoffs and will face either the NL Central champion Milwaukee or the NL’s third wild card in a division series that starts Saturday in Philadelphia.
“I was really happy with the way we finished,” Philadelphia manager Rob Thomson said.
Luis García Jr. hit a home run in the first inning for Washington, which finished the season with a record of 71-91 for the second year in a row.
“Nobody wants to go home at this time of year,” Washington manager Dave Martinez said. “You want to keep playing, but the effort was definitely there this year and they played hard. Our young guys got better, and they are going to continue to get better. Good things to come.”
Nola (14-8) gave up three runs in five-plus innings and struck out seven batters. A day after his teammate Zack Wheeler finished the regular season with 200 innings pitched, Nola was close to matching that but was taken out after allowing a leadoff triple to Dylan Crews in the sixth inning.
“It’s a goal every year to get to 200-plus,” Nola said. “It didn’t work out, but that’s all right. One of our goals was to win the division, and we did that and finished the last game of the season off strong in a good way with a win.”
Phillies reliever José Ruiz loaded the bases with no outs in the ninth inning but managed to strike out García and James Wood. Kody Clemens then caught Juan Yepez’s long fly ball to left field, ending the game and giving Ruiz his first save in 264 career appearances.
