PHILADELPHIA _ Two of the eight television screens that hang above the Phillies clubhouse were tuned Wednesday afternoon to the Braves-Cardinals telecast, making the Phillies fully aware when they left the room for batting practice that the first-place Braves had won their matinee game.
Wednesday night's 4-0 win over the Mets already carried significance. Every game in the final two weeks of the season is already important. But what happened hours earlier in Atlanta seemed to give that night's Phillies game even more weight.
"This is not over," the message said. "It's going to take hard work, heart, and pride. Together we can do this."
The team's season is not over. Home runs by Rhys Hoskins and Odubel Herrera, a career-high nine strikeouts from Zach Eflin, and a cast of five relievers lifted the Phillies, who will play seven of their final 11 games against the Braves.
A playoff berth will take more than just hard work, heart, and pride. It will take 11 days of what manager Gabe Kapler termed earlier this week as not good baseball, but great baseball. A stretch of great baseball would be enough to make the unlikely possible. The next four games in Atlanta will likely decide the season. A flop and the final three won't matter. A Phillies' stand advances the season into the final week.
"What I think that we need our players and our staff and everyone under this roof to buy into, is what we can control is our work," Kapler said. "That is going to give us our best chance to stay in this as long as possible with the potential of finding ourselves in the last couple games of the season vying for a National League East title. I just don't think it makes a whole lot of sense to look too far out."
Hoskins homered in the first with a rare opposite-field shot for his 32nd homer of the season. He doubled in the third to become the first player in exactly two years to have two extra-base hits against Noah Syndergaard. The Phillies worked up Syndergaard's pitch count, tacked him for three runs, and chased him after just four innings. Herrera provided the knockout punch with a two-run homer in the fourth. The Phillies were able to dispose of a pitcher who had limited them just 11 days earlier.
They have won consecutive series for the first time since July 25. It has been a long time since they played a stretch of great baseball. But that is what it will take to unseat the Braves. Their response on Wednesday was a start. And they flew to Atlanta on Wednesday night to see how long that stretch can continue.
