Phillies all but wrap up NL East crown with emphatic sweep of Mets

The Philadelphia Phillies 6-4 win over the New York Mets on Thursday night not only gave them an emphatic four-game sweep over their division rivals, it also probably wrapped up the National League East championship. With that win and sweep, the Phillies have expanded their lead in the East to 11 games with only 15 games left to play. 

The New York Mets needed a sweep to keep their slim division hopes alive

While the Mets still have wild-card playoff hopes, their only hope of potentially catching the Phillies in the divisional race largely hinged on their ability to win all four games in Philadelphia this week. At worst they needed at least three wins in the four games to actually start cutting into that lead. 

The Mets not only failed to win a single game, they were absolutely dominated over the four games, getting outscored by a 27-10 margin. 

They weren't even competitive, and it was a complete 180 reversal from when the two teams met in New York a couple of weeks ago with the Mets getting their own big sweep at Citi Field. That started to close the gap a little for the Mets in the divisional race and created some hope that maybe they could play their way back into the divisional race.

Instead the Mets ended up losing 10 of their next 14 games, including their current six-game losing streak. 

Philadelphia Phillies hitting their stride at right time

The season-ending injury to ace Zack Wheeler seemed like it might have been a devastating blow to the Phillies chances, but they have not really missed a beat and are starting to play some of their best baseball. Especially since the aforementioned sweep at Citi Field in late August.

Since that sweep at the hands of the Mets, the Phillies have won 11 of their past 14 games to really put distance between themselves and the Mets. It's a great time for a team to be playing its best baseball of the season, and right now the Phillies are starting to look like a potential juggernaut in the National League.

Even without Wheeler they still have a couple of aces at the top of their starting rotation with Cristopher Sanchez and Ranger Suarez, a really good bullpen and a powerful lineup led by Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner. 

Not only are the playoffs a lock for them at this point, the division and a first-round bye through the wild-card round seems to be theirs as well.