The Philadelphia Phillies cannot afford to play around these next six games.
The Philadelphia Phillies have not exactly been playing their best baseball of late. They have gone just 4-7 over their last 11 games and have lost three series in a row, and while they still firmly hold a National League Wild Card spot, they cannot afford to mess around.
The good news? The Phillies will have chance to do some serious damage over their next six contests, as they will play a two-game series (those are still a thing?) with the Washington Nationals on Tuesday and Wednesday before opening up a four-game series with the New York Mets from Thursday through Sunday.
Make no mistake: Philadelphia must post a winning record over these next six, and preferably, the Phillies should go 5-1.
Why? Because their last two series will come against the NL-leading Milwaukee Brewers and then the AL-leading Tampa Bay Rays.
Do I think Philadelphia can fall out of the playoff picture at this point? Probably not. Currently, the Phils are in the second Wild Card slot at 83-67. The San Diego Padres are in the third Wild Card at 82-68. The Arizona Diamondbacks are on the outside at 80-71.
Essentially, the Phillies are four games up in the loss column with less than two weeks remaining in the regular season, so it would take a pretty severe collapse — not to mention a major surge by the Diamondbacks — for Philadelphia to miss the postseason.
Nevertheless, the Phillies need to ensure they take care of business now so that they have a cushion for those final two sets of the campaign.
There is no reason why Philadelphia shouldn't mop up versus the Nationals and Mets. Neither team is any good, nor do they have anything to play for outside of being spoilers.
The Phillies just played seven games against the Atlanta Braves sandwiched around three versus the Houston Astros, so facing a couple of bottom-feeders should be a welcome change for the club.
Philadelphia had gone 17-4 for a stretch between last month and the first day of September. It was only normal to expect a little slide to occur. That's baseball. But it needs to end now against poor opponents.
If the Phillies are able to win five of these next six matchups against their NL East foes, they would be set up very nicely for the closing days of the regular season ... and they will essentially guarantee themselves October baseball.
