Last night, the Philadelphia Phillies dropped yet another game to the Atlanta Braves 4-1, losing 3 of 4 in the series and ending their seven-game homestand with a miserable 2-5 record.

Cristopher Sanchez was on the mound last night and like usual had a very solid outing. He allowed four runs over 7.1 innings, coughing up eight hits and a walk while striking out 10 Braves’ batters. The only run the Phillies managed to score off Spencer Strider was in the bottom of the first inning on a Bryson Stott RBI single to right field.

Phillies Only Had 4 Hits Last Night vs Braves

• Alec Bohm: 1-4
• Bryson Stott: 1-4, RBI
• Brandon Marsh: 1-4
• Nick Castellanos: 1-3

With last night’s win, the Atlanta Braves clinched the National League East for the sixth straight year. They celebrated their division-clinching win on the sacred grounds of Citizens Bank Park last night and the Phillies even threw up a congratulatory message on their scoreboard.

Phillies Scoreboard at Citizens Bank Park…

Atlanta wins its sixth straight NL East title. The Phillies have lost five of their last seven games. They are 79-67. pic.twitter.com/TlkuoQxCLd

— Matt Gelb (@MattGelb) September 14, 2023

Honestly, I’m not even sure why anyone cares about the Atlanta Braves winning the National League East. They have been dominant this season and the Phillies themselves haven’t even been within five games of first place since mid-May.

As for the scoreboard message, we don’t care.

I know that fans are upset on social media because it’s a “division rival” but at the same time, none of this matters. If anything, I think it will hurt the Atlanta Braves to basically have 3 weeks off before baseball matters again.

We all know what happened in the NLDS last year. The Braves came out flat against in the postseason while the the Phillies clinched a playoff berth in the final series of the regular season against the Astros before steamrolling their way through the Cardinals in the Wild Card on their way to Atlanta.

Winning the division is cool and all. The Braves were going to do it anyways. Just so happened to be in Philadelphia last night. The NL East hasn’t been in play for quite some time. That’s just the sad truth of the situation.

Don’t care. We have a Wild Card race to win.

The Phillies will have the day off today and then it’s time to handle business against the St. Louis Cardinals on the road this weekend.

From there, they’ll head to Atlanta for three games before returning to Citizens Bank Park for the final homestand of 2023. The Phillies face the New York Mets (4 games) and Pittsburgh Pirates at home before ending the regular season on the road with three more against the Mets.

The Hunt for Red October is alive in the NL Wild Card

The Phillies have a 1.5 game lead over the Cubs for the top NL Wild Card spot with 16 games left in the regular season. 

Dropping 3 of 4 to the Braves after losing 2 of 3 to the Marlins is certainly a brutal stretch of baseball in the final month the regular season for the Phillies. A 2-5 homestand was the last thing this team needed in the middle of September.

There are no moral victories. I will say, however, those five losses came on a combined eight runs and two of them happened in extra innings after hitting game-tying homers late in the game.

Brutal stretch for The Fightins for sure, but if you’ve been reading The Liberty Line, you would have expected those results already.

16 Games Remaining: at STL (3), at ATL (3), vs. NYM (4), vs. PIT (3), at NYM (3)

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