Hold the celebration.<\/p>\n
Needing to win Sunday, or the Mets to lose, to defend the National League East crown, the Phillies<\/a> finally stubbed their toe. Aaron Nola<\/a> threw another stinker in a 10-3 loss to the Kansas City Royals, their first setback in a week.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Kyle Schwarber\u2019s bet on himself paid off. And how he did it boosts his value \u2014 even as a DH.<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n The Mets stayed barely alive by outlasting the Texas Rangers, 5-2, in 10 innings. With the team charter and a flight crew idling nearby to whisk the Phillies to Los Angeles for three important games at Dodger Stadium, protective plastic was rolled up above their lockers, ready to be unfurled for a sudsy celebration.<\/p>\n And as fans filed out of the ballpark, the Phillies put the Mets game on Phanavision. But a celebration at home was not to be.<\/p>\n The whole thing is a foregone conclusion, of course. The Phillies will repeat as NL East champs for the first time since their five consecutive crowns from 2007 to 2011. <\/p>\n And they\u2019ll win the division by the largest margin since at least 2011, when they had a 13-game spread.<\/p>\n The more pressing question \u2014 other than when and where they would pop champagne \u2014 involved Nola, who gave up two runs in the fifth inning and four in the sixth after being staked to a 2-0 lead on two first-inning homers, including Kyle Schwarber<\/a>\u2019s 52nd.<\/p>\n After spinning six scoreless innings against the free-falling Mets earlier in the week, Nola gave up two more homers. His ERA through 15 starts: 6.44.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the third-worst ERA by a Phillies pitcher (minimum 80 innings) in a season since 1935. Only Taijuan Walker (7.10 last year) and Paul Byrd (6.54 in 2000) were worse.<\/p>\n Nola likely will have two more starts \u2014 next weekend in Arizona and the final week of the season against either the Marlins or Twins \u2014 to make a case to start a game in the best-of-five divisional round, assuming the Phillies are able to hold off the Dodgers and secure a bye through the wild-card round.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Phillies\u2019 Trea Turner fields grounders, looks \u2018ahead of schedule\u2019<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n But that\u2019s a subject for another day. On Sunday, there was only this: The odds of the Phillies even being in position to win the NL East this soon were infinitesimal.<\/p>\n Consider: When the week began, the magic number was only 13. It took nothing less, then, than six Phillies wins in a row and <\/i>six consecutive Mets losses to set up a potential Sunday clinching. Even with the teams facing off in four of those games, <\/i>it seemed, well, impossible.<\/p>\n The Phillies seemingly were sending the right pitcher to the mound, too. Nola started the playoff clinchers in 2022 in Houston and 2023 at home. After coming up short in back-to-back attempts to win the NL East last season, he spun six solid innings at home to get the party started.<\/p>\n Uncanny, right?<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s every year,\u201d manager Rob Thomson<\/a> said.<\/p>\n And for four innings, it seemed Nola might do it again. He retired the first nine Royals batters before giving up a leadoff double to Mike Yastrzemski. Even so, he escaped the fourth inning without allowing a run.<\/p>\n