As the regular season winds down, the Philadelphia Phillies still have one goal remaining.
The Phillies have an outside chance of earning the No. 1 overall seed in the National League playoffs, and they can help their chances with a win on Friday against the visiting Minnesota Twins.
Philadelphia (94-65) enters the final weekend of the season trailing Milwaukee (96-63) by two games for home-field advantage throughout the playoffs -- and the best record in the major leagues. Both teams have three games remaining, and the Brewers own the tiebreaker.
The Phillies took two of three against the Miami Marlins this week, capped by a 1-0 triumph on Thursday. Walker Buehler pitched five innings and combined with a trio of relievers on a five-hit gem.
"He doesn't scare," Philadelphia manager Rob Thomson said of Buehler. "And he likes the bright lights, and he performs well, so you have to take that into account."
To kick off the final series of the regular season, Philadelphia will turn to Aaron Nola (4-10, 6.46 ERA), who gave up four runs on seven hits in 5 1/3 innings during a loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Saturday. He struck out only four of the 24 hitters he faced, and he walked multiple hitters for the fourth time in his past five starts.
"I'm not sure if there's some fatigue setting in, just because he hasn't had a full season. Sometimes that's good," Thomson said after that game regarding Nola, who missed three months with rib and ankle injuries before returning in mid-August. "With the amount of starts he's had, he's still kind of building back. I don't know whether there's some fatigue setting in, but I liked where he was at today."
Nola is 0-1 with an 8.00 ERA in two career starts against the Twins, although the bulk of the damage came in a loss back in 2016. Last season, Nola held Minnesota to one run over six innings.
The Twins will counter with Joe Ryan (13-9, 3.47 ERA), who has never faced Philadelphia. When he takes the mound on Friday, the right-hander will be looking to set a career high in victories.
Ryan is scuffling to the finish line, however, having allowed 12 runs (11 earned) in 11 innings this month. He gave up five runs (four earned) in five frames during a defeat against the Cleveland Guardians on Saturday.
"I wish I could have been a little bit smoother the last couple, and just thrown a couple more innings, too," Ryan said. "My role is to take some innings off the bullpen there, and I don't feel like I've done a really good job of that lately."
Minnesota (69-90) enters on the heels of a 4-0 win over the Texas Rangers on Thursday. Byron Buxton hit two home runs to account for all of the Twins' offense, increasing his career-high totals to 34 long balls and 82 RBIs.
"He's in the process of capping off a pretty historic year," Minnesota manager Rocco Baldelli said. "My guess is he's going to get a whole bunch of MVP votes and Silver Slugger votes. We've been able to watch Buck for a long time. We know what he does and how pretty incredible it is to watch."
This weekend could also mark Jhoan Duran's first appearance against his former team. The Twins dealt the star closer to the Phillies at the trade deadline, and he has a 2.29 ERA and 15 saves since the swap.
--Field Level Media
