The Philadelphia Phillies just kept on winning on Saturday, as they defeated the Kansas City Royals, 8-6, at Citizens Bank Park. Now, their magic number is one.
That magic number is to win the National League East title, which would be the team’s second straight division crown.
In Saturday’s win, Kyle Schwarber slammed his 51st home run of the season and Brandon Marsh added his 10th home run of the campaign. Marsh ended up with three RBI while Schwarber ended up with two RBI. It wasn’t a clean game for the pitching staff, but Taijuan Walker did enough to claim his fifth win of the season and Jhoan Duran recorded his 30th save of the season.
One. pic.twitter.com/dDbfYhWdan
— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) September 14, 2025
This has been an incredible week for the Phillies (89-60). Entering this week, going into a four-game series with the New York Mets, Philadelphia had a magic number of 13 to win the division title. It would have been far-fetched to predict what happened next.
Since the magic number is a combination of Phillies wins and Mets losses, Philadelphia stood a good chance of gaining ground on clinching the title. But few could have expected a four-game sweep of the Mets. That dropped the magic number to five.
New York headed back to Queens to face the Texas Rangers, who had won four straight games going into that series. The Phillies hosted the Royals. One might have expected Philly’s run to the title to slow a bit. But it didn’t. Philadelphia beat Kansas City on Friday and again on Saturday. New York continued to slump. The Mets fell to Texas on Friday and again on Saturday, the latter of which saw New York lose a late 2-0 lead.
Now, all Philadelphia must to do to clinch the division on Sunday is to either beat the Royals or have the Mets lose to the Rangers.
The Phillies are on the verge of making the playoffs for the fourth straight season. Back in 2022, the franchise made the World Series as a wild card team. In 2023, Philadelphia reached the NL Championship Series and last season the Phillies lost in the divisional round.
The Phillies have not won consecutive division titles since earlier this century, when they won five straight NL East crowns from 2007-11. In that span they won the 2008 World Series, went to the World Series again in 2009 and reached the NL Championship Series in 2010.
Magic Number to Clinch NL East: 1
Philadelphia Phillies Games Remaining: 13
Philadelphia Phillies Remaining Schedule: Sept. 14, vs. Kansas City; Sept. 15-17, at Los Angeles Dodgers; Sept. 19-21, at Arizona; Sept. 23-25 vs. Miami; Sept. 26-28, vs. Minnesota.
NL East Standings (after Sept. 13)
Philadelphia Phillies: 89-60 (lead division)
New York Mets: 76-73 (13.0 games behind)
New York Mets Remaining Schedule (13 games): Sept. 14, vs. Texas; Sept. 16-18, vs. San Diego; Sept. 19-21, vs. Washington; Sept. 23-25 at Chicago Cubs; Sept. 26-28, at Miami.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.si.com ’
