PHILADELPHIA — When the Phillies entered the home clubhouse on Saturday afternoon, every player had a new T-shirt hanging on the back of the chair in front of their locker.
It was a powder blue shirt featuring Harrison Bader and his go-to phrase: “What a gift.”
No offense to Bader, but the Phillies are hoping to find a much better gift waiting for them in the clubhouse on Sunday.
With their 8-6 win over the Royals on Saturday night at Citizens Bank Park, coupled with the Mets’ 3-2 loss to the Rangers, the Phillies’ magic number to clinch the National League East is down to one. That means if they either win again on Sunday or the Mets lose again, the Phils will retreat to the clubhouse postgame to find those same lockers draped in tarps in anticipation of a champagne celebration.
Philadelphia’s latest victory followed what’s been an all-too-familiar script: Bader recorded another multihit game, Kyle Schwarber recorded another home run and the Phillies got contributions up and down the lineup.
Bader went 3-for-4 and scored a pair of runs. It was his sixth straight multihit game, the longest streak by a Phillie since 2022 (Alec Bohm).
Schwarber, meanwhile, clubbed his 51st home run of the season on a night when he reached base four times. He remains within striking distance of Ryan Howard’s franchise-record 58-homer season in 2006.
The Phillies have now racked up 43 runs and 61 hits during their six-game winning streak. The only other time in the last 40 years that they’ve reached those totals while winning six straight came in 2007.
All of that has put the Phillies on the cusp of clinching the NL East in front of their home fans before embarking on a six-game road trip — something that seemed unfathomable at the start of the week.
