Nats keep home field hopes alive with another win (updated)

The day-after-clinch game is always a tricky matter. All the moreso when the team in question still has something left to play for over the season's final few days.

The Nationals wanted to take it easy tonight, less than 24 hours after they clinched a spot in next week's wild card game. They also wanted to maintain their slim lead over the Brewers for home field advantage next Tuesday night.

They found a way to accomplish both during a 5-2 victory over the Phillies.

A game that started off sluggish turned dramatic late, with the Nationals rallying to take the lead in the seventh and then tacking on in the eighth before closing out Philadelphia for the fourth time in three days.

"For the situation of the team right now, it's not hard (to keep trying to win)," said right-hander Aníbal Sánchez, who continued his impressive four-month run of success. "I think everybody needed to keep focus on the game. It's nothing. We made the wild card game, but at the end we want to play here, too. We need to keep focus and win some games."

The go-ahead hit came from Wilmer Difo, filling in at shortstop for the weary Trea Turner. The tack-on homer came from Brian Dozier, serving as an unconventional leadoff man tonight. And the big outs in the eighth while the lead was only one run came from Wander Suero and Hunter Strickland, who set up Sean Doolittle for his first save since mid-August.

The win, the Nationals' sixth in their last seven games, leaves them at 89-69, one game up on Milwaukee (88-70) with four to play. One new wrinkle to this final weekend of the regular season: the blazing-hot Brewers are now only 1 1/2 games behind the Cardinals (90-69) in the National League Central, creating the suddenly very real possibility that the Nats' wild card opponent could hail from St. Louis. Or that a Monday tiebreaker could be necessary to determine that.

"Obviously, we're still fighting for home field advantage, so all these definitely matter," Dozier said. "Gave a couple of guys a day off to rest, much needed. But at the same time we've still got a lot of work to do."

With their own wild card berth clinched but home field advantage for Tuesday night's game still very much up in the air, Davey Martinez had a delicate needle to thread when he filled out tonight's lineup card. He wants to make a real effort to ensure the game takes place on South Capitol Street, but he also wants to make sure the guys who have been playing every day for months to get to this point now get a chance to catch their breath.

So tonight's lineup was lacking two key stalwarts: Turner and Anthony Rendon. But it still included six regulars: Adam Eaton, Howie Kendrick, Juan Soto, Asdrúbal Cabrera, Yan Gomes and Victor Robles.

"I still want to play these games to win," Martinez said earlier in the afternoon. "But we've got to be smart about giving guys some days off. Today is no Anthony, no Trea. Both deserve days off, obviously. We'll see how it goes, and hopefully get Juan a couple of days off in the near future."

The fact they had some big names playing didn't necessarily mean the Nationals were going to enjoy a big night at the plate, not when you consider Tuesday night's extracurricular activities that extended into this morning. And sure enough, they did not.

Drew Smyly, who entered with a 6.44 ERA and 1.644 WHIP in 24 combined appearances for the Rangers and Phillies, retired the first 11 batters he faced, seven via strikeout.

Kendrick finally put an end to the nonsense when he blasted a 3-2 pitch into the left field bullpen for a solo homer in the bottom of the fourth. But that would stand as the Nationals' lone run off Smyly through six innings.

The left-hander would depart after surrendering a one-out single in the seventh, and in the process joined Noah Syndergaard as the only opposing pitchers to strike out 10 Nationals batters without walking anybody in the last two seasons.

They looked like they would squander Sánchez's outstanding start (seven innings of two-run ball, making him 11-2 with a 3.42 ERA over his last 21 starts) but no worries because the Nats took care of business against the Phillies bullpen.

They scored twice in the bottom of the seventh, getting a sacrifice fly from Robles and a two-out RBI single from the seldom-used Difo. They then scored twice more in the bottom of the eighth, getting Dozier's 20th homer of the season and another sac fly from Soto to prove they were perfectly capable of celebrating Tuesday night and still playing winning baseball on Wednesday.

"It's real difficult, but luckily the game last night didn't end too late," Difo said via interpreter Octavio Martinez. "We didn't go all night with the celebrations, so that was good, and came back today refreshed. I felt refreshed and ready to go with this night game tonight."