PHOENIX -- The Phillies opened a West Coast road trip last week in the best way possible.
They clinched their second consecutive NL East title last Monday with a victory over the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. They popped champagne and beer bottles that night. They smoked cigars.
The Phillies played five more games after that. They went 3-3 on the trip, which included Sunday afternoon’s 9-2 loss to the Diamondbacks at Chase Field. The Phils will finish the regular season with a six-game homestand beginning Tuesday night against the Marlins at Citizens Bank Park.
Here are a few things to watch and think about this week:
The bye
The Phillies’ magic number to clinch a first-round bye is two, meaning any combination of two Phillies wins or Dodgers losses and Philadelphia will host Game 1 of the NL Division Series on Oct. 4 at Citizens Bank Park.
“I want to clinch the bye, for sure,” Bryce Harper said. “That’s the biggest thing for all of us.”
The Phillies had a bye last year, then lost to the Mets in the NLDS. The Braves had the bye each of the two years prior to that, then lost to the Phillies in the NLDS.
“It’s worked for some teams, obviously, and there’s other teams that have complained about it,” Harper said. “But I don’t think we’re going to be one of those teams. We weren’t last year. I’m looking forward to having it. I would love a couple days off, obviously.
"I don’t think it matters if you have a bye or [don't have] a bye, a Wild Card Series or no Wild Card Series. I can’t stand the stance of teams taking, ‘Oh, well, if we would have played … ’ I think it’s all nonsense.”
If the season ended Sunday, the Phils would play the winner of an NL Wild Card Series between the Dodgers and Reds. Cincinnati is tied with the Mets for the final NL Wild Card Spot, but the Reds own the tiebreaker. Arizona is one game behind both teams.
Trea Turner
Turner is expected to play before the end of the weekend.
Turner, who has not played since Sept. 7 because of a strained right hamstring, is scheduled to face live pitching on Tuesday and Wednesday at Citizens Bank Park. If he isn’t ready to play by Thursday’s series finale against the Marlins -- he still needs to run at close to 100% before he is cleared -- then he is expected to play at least one game next weekend against the Twins.
Turner leads the National League with a .305 batting average, putting him in position to be the first Phillies player to win a batting title since Richie Ashburn hit .350 in 1958. Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner is second in the NL, batting .299.
“I really hope he gets it,” Harper said. “He deserves it. He’s been one of the best players in the National League this year. Kind of a slap in the face to everybody else that he wasn’t an All-Star, and now, he’s doing what he’s doing.”
The lineup
Alec Bohm went 4-for-4 with a double and a walk on Sunday. He is 8-for-13 with two doubles, one home run, one walk and four RBIs since returning from the injured list.
“I’ll probably have to move him up [in the order],” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said.
Bohm hit fifth and sixth this weekend.
“He just lengthens the lineup,” Harper said. “When he gets hot, when he gets going, he’s one of the better guys in our lineup. … Obviously, any time you have a guy behind you that’s going to put the bat on the ball and get on base and see pitches, that’s huge.”
The rotation
Walker Buehler is going to start on Thursday. Taijuan Walker will piggyback another starter over the weekend. The Phillies are trying to figure out how Buehler and Walker might fit into their postseason plans.
They’re also trying to figure out exactly what Aaron Nola can give them in the postseason.
Nola remains the favorite to be the No. 4 starter, if the Phillies advance to the NLCS.
Nola allowed four runs in 5 2/3 innings on Saturday against the Diamondbacks. A first-inning run scored, in part, because Bohm couldn’t hold onto a popup hit into shallow left field. Nola allowed only one other run through five innings, but he allowed back-to-back doubles in the sixth to spark a two-run rally.
If Nola starts in the postseason, one wonders if the Phillies will let him pitch that deep into a game, even if he gets through the middle innings relatively unscathed. Consider opposing hitters' slash line against Nola based on how many times he's gone through the lineup this season:
First time: .269/.331/.408
Second: .266/.329/.484
Third: .333/.385/.667
For his career, Nola’s allowed a .251/.311/.426 opposing slash line the third time through a lineup.
“I’m not sure if there’s some fatigue setting in, just because he hasn’t had a full season,” Thomson said. “Sometimes, that’s good [to not have as many innings]. But really, the amount of starts that he’s had, he’s still kind of building back. But I liked where he was at [Saturday].”