Phillies scrape into MLB playoffs after week of ‘living hell in slow motion’

Bryce Harper and Edmundo Sosa homered, and Zack Wheeler delivered like a Game 7 ace to bring the Philadelphia Phillies back from the brink of collapse and send them into the playoffs. Their 7-3 win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday clinched the final National League wildcard berth.

The Phillies could have clinched a playoff berth as early as Wednesday before they lost four straight games and nearly coughed up their wildcard lead to Arizona. But the Phillies win on Sunday, meant they snatched the final wildcard place in the National League.

The Phillies will play Game 1 in a best-of-three wildcard series on Tuesday in Atlanta against their NL East rivals, the Braves.

“It was kind of a living hell in slow motion,” Phillies managing partner and CEO John Middleton said of Philadelphia’s nervy last week.

Elsewhere, the Texas Rangers were eliminated from postseason contention on the final day of the regular season with their 6-4 loss to the Minnesota Twins, who got a home run and three RBIs from Josh Bell to back Dean Kremer’s seven innings of one-run pitching. Texas (80-82) needed a win and a Houston loss to the Athletics. Houston, who held the division tiebreaker, were leading 8-0 in the eighth inning when the Rangers game ended.

MLB wildcard line-ups

The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox will get primetime exposure. All three potential games in the AL first-round matchup that begins Tuesday will start at about 8pm ET and be televised by NBC. Atlanta’s series hosting Philadelphia will have 2pm games televised on NBC, and the Chicago White Sox series at Houston will start at 5pm ET, with games televised by NBCSN. The Chicago Cubs’ series at San Diego will have 10 p.m. ET games and be televised by NBCSN.