ATLANTA — Bryce Harper doesn’t play the could have, should have, would have game.
As far as the 33-year-old right fielder and nine-time MLB All-Star is concerned, the bottom line for the Philadelphia Phillies is what did happen: They came up short in the postseason. Again.
“You’re here to do business. You’re here to win games, and we didn’t do that,” Harper said in a subdued visitors’ clubhouse at Truist Park on Thursday night after Philadelphia’s 6-2 loss to the Atlanta Braves in the deciding third game of their National League Wild-Card Series.
There were no excuses from the veteran slugger about a September swoon that prevented the Phillies from lining up their pitching against Atlanta because it took them until Game 162 last Sunday to clinch a playoff spot.
Philadelphia, which finished six games behind division champion Atlanta in the NL East, forced Game 3 against the Braves with three dramatic solo home runs late in Game 2 on Wednesday afternoon. But in the end, the Phillies fell into an early hole Thursday and were eliminated from the postseason for the fifth consecutive year as they chase their first World Series title since 2008.
“You’d love to be able to set your pitching up and them be rested and all that kind of stuff,” interim manager Don Mattingly said. “But that’s not the way it went. We had to fight to get ourselves in, and to do what we had to do to get in, we had to do what we had to do basically every game in the series.”
Philadelphia’s core of Harper, designated hitter Kyle Schwarber, catcher J.T. Realmuto and starting pitchers Aaron Nola and Zack Wheeler have made five straight playoff appearances and averaged 91 regular-season wins per year during that stretch. They have yet to win it all, though, and have been eliminated further and further from that goal each season since reaching the 2022 World Series, which they lost in six games to the Houston Astros.
The following season, Philadelphia exited in the NL Championship Series; the next two years, the end came in an NL Division Series. Now they’ve taken another step in the wrong direction.
“Obviously we’d love to win a World Series with these guys. We’ve been together quite a while, and we’ve got a good clubhouse, and you know, good characters on this team,” Nola said. “We know what type of guys are in here. We know what type of players we have, and what we’re capable of.”
And yet, Nola admitted, the Phillies need to “kind of play good at the right time.”
The five-year run included two playoff series wins over the Braves. Philadelphia eliminated Atlanta in 2022 and 2023 despite the Braves winning the NL East both seasons. That scenario was set up again this year, with the Braves earning home-field advantage in this series by virtue of its seventh NL East crown in a nine-year stretch.
This time, however, Atlanta managed to get the big hits and the clutch pitching when it mattered most. Ray Kerr, in just his 10th appearance this year and first postseason appearance of his MLB career, played the role of opener to perfection. He went 3 1/3 innings, giving up no runs, one walk and one hit to set up bulk reliever Grant Holmes, a starter during the regular season.
Michael Harris II belted a three-run homer off Nola in the first, and the Phillies were looking up the rest of the night.
The Phillies were looking up at the rest of their division in April, but they eventually righted the ship. Mattingly took over when Rob Thomson was fired on April 28 after a 9-18 start to his fifth season as manager. The Phillies won eight of their next nine games and reached .500 on May 16. A red-hot August put them in playoff position, but a postseason berth was not secured until the final game of the regular season as they scuffled during the final week.
Mattingly, who managed the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2011-15 and the Miami Marlins from 2016-22, deflected questions about his future after the game.
“It’s not the time to talk about it. I’m comfortable with whatever they want to do,” said Mattingly, who joined the Phillies in January as their bench coach. “Again, I want the best for the Phillies. I loved being in Philly this year. I actually like playing in that environment. I like the environment. It’s a rough environment, but it’s good.
“Again, I think you let the organization evaluate, talk about what they think moving forward, what they should do, and that dictates a lot of different things.”
As the clubhouse emptied out, Wheeler reflected on the journey the Phillies went on and the disappointing ending.
“It is tough. We spent a lot of time together. We see everybody’s ups and downs,” he said. “We see the good times and bad times people have throughout the season. We’re all brothers here, and we love to compete. So something like this happens, it’s tough.”