Philadelphia Phillies clinch first NL East title since 2011 with 6-2 win over Chicago Cubs

(CNN) — When the Philadelphia Phillies won the National League (NL) East for the fifth year in a row in 2011, they probably did not expect to have to wait too much longer for their next division title.

Fast-forward to Monday night and the Phillies have clinched their first NL East crown in 13 years with a 6-2 win over the Chicago Cubs at Citizens Bank Park.

The Atlanta Braves have been the division’s dominant franchise over the last decade, winning each of the last six titles, but Philadelphia has steamrolled the competition this year. Rob Thomson’s team overtook Atlanta on May 3 and has not looked back since.

Only the Los Angeles Dodgers (93-63) have a better record in MLB this season than the Phillies (93-64).

“This is what you work for all year,” two-time NL MVP Bryce Harper told NBC Sports Philadelphia from a raucous locker room.

“I’ve played in this division my whole career. It’s the hardest division to win. There’s so many good teams in this division, so many good pitchers and players and everything. To be able to win your division, it’s hard to do in baseball. It’s hard to go wire-to-wire. To be able to do that, it’s pretty incredible.”

The Phillies’ attention will now turn to securing a first-round bye, which they can do by winning two of their five remaining games or if the Milwaukee Brewers lose two of their remaining six.

After that, the Phillies will enter the playoffs for the third consecutive year, where they will be hoping to go one better than 2022, when they lost the World Series 4-2 to the Houston Astros.

The franchise has won the World Series twice: in 1980 and 2008.

“We’ve got experience, we’ve got expectations for ourselves,” said designated hitter Kyle Schwarber, according to MLB.com. “We’ve seen a lot of different things through the regular season to the postseason. We’re not going to be surprised by anything. We’ve just got to be able to play our game and respond to anything that happens.”

Schwarber was instrumental in Monday’s title-clinching game, hitting a solo home run in the third inning to add to JT Realmuto’s two-run homer in the second. It was Schwarber’s 100th RBI of the season – the first time a Phillies player has batted in 100 runs in two consecutive years since Ryan Howard had six straight 100-RBI seasons between 2006 and 2011.

Nick Castellanos’ single later in the third brought home Trea Turner to make it 4-0, before an error from Luis Vázquez allowed Harper to score all the way from second in the fifth.

Schwarber grounded into a double play in the bottom of the sixth but did drive home a run in the process to complete the scoring for the Phillies.

The Cubs would come back with two runs in the seventh, but the Phils would not be made to wait any longer, Castellanos catching a fly ball off Michael Busch to record the final out and begin the celebrations.

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