For the second straight year, the Philadelphia Phillies are NL East champions. The Phillies, who secured a playoff spot on Sunday, clinched the division title with a win Monday over the Los Angeles Dodgers (PHI 5, LAD 4). This is the first time the Phillies have won back-to-back NL East titles since winning five straight from 2007-11.

As recently as Aug. 27, the Phillies had a narrow four-game lead in the division that was really three games because the Mets won the season series and held the tiebreaker. Since that date, the Phillies are an NL-best 13-4 while the Mets have gone 5-12. For all intents and purposes, Philadelphia clinched the division with a four-game sweep of the Mets at Citizens Bank Park last week.

They got the win on Monday in 10 innings, as J.T. Realmuto's sacrifice fly was the difference in a back-and-forth game at Dodger Stadium. Bryce Harper homered to give the Phillies the lead in the eighth, but the Dodgers forced extras as Andy Pages took Jhoan Duran deep in the ninth.

The Phillies still have more to do. Monday's win extended their lead to 5 ½ games over the Los Angeles Dodgers for the NL's No. 2 seed and thus a Wild Card Series bye. The bye is extra important for the Phillies because Trea Turner (hamstring) and Alec Bohm (shoulder) are nursing injuries. The bye would give them an extra few days to rest and heal up before the NLDS.

Bye or no bye, the Phillies will be without all-world ace Zack Wheeler, who will have season-ending thoracic outlet decompression surgery on Sept. 23. The Phillies also won't have lefty reliever José Alvarado in the postseason. He has a forearm injury but also is not eligible for the playoffs because he served an 80-game performance-enhancing drug suspension earlier this year.

Still, the Phillies are as good a candidate as any team to win the World Series (+425, per DraftKings). Harper and Kyle Schwarber, two players with tremendous postseason track records, lead the offense. Jesús Luzardo, Aaron Nola, Cristopher Sánchez, and Ranger Suárez are a very strong rotation even without Wheeler. Duran, arguably the best reliever in the game, locks down the ninth inning.

Philadelphia can clinch a bye within the next week. Once they do that, they figure to take their foot off the gas, rest key players, and audition others for October. This core group of players lost the World Series in 2022, lost the NLCS in 2023, and lost the NLDS in 2024. They want to reverse that trend and get over the hump in 2025.

The Phillies are the second team to clinch a postseason berth this year. The Milwaukee Brewers secured a spot in the tournament earlier this weekend, though they have not yet clinched the NL Central title. The Dodgers, Chicago Cubs, Detroit Tigers, and Toronto Blue Jays can all clinch playoff spots in the coming days.