The Philadelphia Phillies will finally be returning home after playing their final road games of the season. The regular season, that is. The Phillies' last road series over the weekend was one to forget, and it was against a familiar foe from their recent playoff past: the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The Phillies dropped two of three to the Diamondbacks, despite Alec Bohm's big return, with a couple of disappointing losses after taking the series opener by a healthy 8-2 score. The good news is that it's the last time the Phillies will have to face the D-backs in the regular season.
The bad news is that Arizona could very well sneak into the playoffs — they're just one game out of the final Wild Card berth — and wind up as a postseason matchup the Phillies and their fans would rather avoid.
Diamondbacks remind Phillies why they won't be fun to play in postseason, again
It was just two postseasons ago that the Phillies looked like they were about to steamroll Arizona out of the National League Championship Series. But the tides turned and the Phillies lost that series in seven games after the offense fell silent and the pitching staff had no answer for the D-backs' pesky bats.
It felt like more of the same on the weekend, especially in Sunday's demoralizing 9-2 loss. The Diamondbacks racked up 15 hits and didn't look back after scoring five runs in the second inning against Ranger Suárez. The lefty, who has been solid lately, was charged with six runs on eight hits over four innings of work while recording just two strikeouts.
The five-run second is a good example of why the D-backs won't be a fun team to face if they make it to the playoffs, as MLB.com's Steve Gilbert points out. They showed off the speed and athleticism that makes them so dangerous. Tim Tawa beat out an infield hit. Jordan Lawlar walked. Jorge Barrosa bunted his way aboard. Then the stars at the top of the order came through, with Ketel Marte's two-run single and Corbin Carroll's three-run home run that sealed the deal.
428 feet
— MLB (@MLB) September 21, 2025
107.1 MPH
Corbin Carroll doubles the @Dbacks lead with one big swing 🐍 pic.twitter.com/ray55JWAZp
The Phillies managed 11 hits of their own but couldn't come up with much in RBI situations, going 1-for-14 with runners in scoring position. They split the season series against the Diamondbacks, but Arizona is one of those teams that feels like the Phillies have a hard time playing against.
It makes sense. The D-backs are a good team, with a top offense. They've scored the fourth-most runs in the majors this season with 773 and have the third-highest team slugging percentage at .435. For reference, the Phillies rank seventh with 756 runs scored and fifth with a .531 slugging percentage.
While Arizona's pitching staff hasn't had the season they expected, the starting rotation has figured things out at the right time to help them go on this late-season run that sees them on the verge of a playoff spot. Since the All-Star break, Diamondbacks starters rank sixth with a 3.69 ERA. In September they have the third-lowest ERA at 2.78, while the Phillies' starting rotation has a 13th-ranked 4.69 ERA.
There's no guarantee that the D-backs will be part of the NL postseason or that the Phillies would even play them. But if they do get in as the sixth seed and the Phillies finish No. 2, that could mean a meeting in the NLDS.
Is a rematch of the 2023 NLCS a good matchup for the Phillies? Based on this most recent sample, probably not.