Phillies Clinch First Round Bye Behind Franchise Record Eight Home Run Game
Sep 23, 2025; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Kyle Schwarber (12) watches his home run during the first inning against the Miami Marlins at Citizens Bank Park. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images
For the second year in a row, the Philadelphia Phillies have secured a first-round bye in the playoffs.
After locking up the National League East last week in a 7-6 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Phillies beat out the Dodgers again, this time in the form of one of the two guaranteed byes in the National League Playoffs.
The Milwaukee Brewers currently hold the No. 1 overall seed in the National League and will likely clinch it with their magic number being down to one. That means the Phillies will likely be the No. 2 seed in the National League and will face the winners of the No. 3 vs No. 6 wildcard matchup. The Dodgers are locked into the third seed, and the sixth seed will be either the Mets, Reds, Diamondbacks, Cardinals, or Marlins. The first game of the NLDS will be Saturday, October 4, at Citizens Bank Park.
Home runs were the name of the game for the Phillies in their 11-1 win over the Miami Marlins, as the team hit a franchise record eight bombs in the win. Edmundo Sosa, fresh off the injured list due to a groin injury, made his presence well known, smoking not one, not two, but three home runs, a three-run bomb, and two solo shots. Sosa became the first Phillies shortstop to hit three home runs in one game, the 26th shortstop in baseball history to do it.
Kyle Schwarber added two home runs of his own, smashing homers No. 55 and 56 on the season, passing Shohei Ohtani‘s 2024 campaign for the most home runs by a designated hitter in MLB history.
Bryson Stott and Alec Bohm both added solo home runs, with Stott’s being his first home run off a left-handed pitcher since May of 2024, and Otto Kemp hit a two-run home run for his eighth of the season.
Jesus Luzardo was on the mound for the Phillies and looked fantastic in his final start in the regular season. He tossed seven innings of one-run baseball, recording 10 strikeouts, ending his 2025 with a 15-7 record and a 3.92 ERA. After striking out the side in the first inning, Luzardo reached 209 strikeouts for the season, passing his previous career high, and did the same with innings pitched after reaching the third.
The Marlins did strike first in this one, with Connor Norby smacking an infield single to third and reaching second base on a throwing error by Bohm, and two batters later, Eric Wagaman brought him home with a single to left, making it 1-0 Miami.
With the game tied in the third, Schwarber flipped that script, smoking a long solo home run to straightaway center field for his 55th bomb on the season, tying the game at one all.
One run was all the Phillies scored in the third, but in the fourth, they used the long ball again to take the lead. With one out in the inning, Sosa smacked a one-handed deep fly ball over the left-center field wall for a go-ahead solo home run.
The home run parade didn’t stop there, as after a strikeout from Weston Wilson, Stott introduced himself, smoking a solo bomb deep into the Marlins bullpen, making it 3-1 Phillies. For Stott, it was the longest home run of his career and his first home run off a lefty since May 18th of last season.
In the bottom fifth, the Phillies blew the game open thanks to, you guessed it, another home run. Bohm smoked a double down the left field line for the first base runner of the inning, and a Kemp walk put two runners on for Sosa. After a pitching change brought right-handed pitcher Lake Bachar in the game, Sosa once again smoked a ball deep into the seats for a three-run home run.
Luzardo sent the Marlins down 1-2-3 in both the sixth and the seventh inning, picking up a strikeout in each inning, totaling 10 on the night, the seventh time he’s recorded 10 or more strikeouts in a game this season.
In the seventh, the Phillies turned the game into their own personal home run derby, smacking, not one, not two, not three, but four home runs in the inning. It started with a 468-foot bomb into the second deck off the bat, Schwarber for his second of the night and 56th of the season.
That was then followed by another solo shot, this time off the bat of Bohm for his 11th of the season, and after Nick Castellanos reached on an error, Kemp ripped a two-run bomb to left center field for the Phillies’ seventh home run of the night, tying a franchise record. That record didn’t last for long as Sosa dug in and smacked his third home run on the night for a franchise record eighth home run as a team.
With a 10-run lead, the Phillies put the game on cruise control the rest of the night with Tim Mayza pitching a shutout eighth inning, and Max Lazar doing the same in the ninth, as the Phillies picked up the 11-1 win.
Matt Brown
Matt has been a Philadelphia sports fan all his life and spent four years at Penn State University majoring in Broadcast Journalism and minoring in Sports Studies. He previously covered Penn State’s field hockey, men’s and women’s basketball, and baseball teams while writing for a Penn State blog called Onward State. He has now covered the Phillies, Eagles, and Sixers for Philly Sports Reports since October 2024 and wants to pursue a career in Sports Journalism.
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