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By Jackson Roberts
Contributing Sports Writer
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The Philadelphia Phillies have done their job in the regular season. It's time to shift the focus to setting things up perfectly for what they hope is a deep playoff run.
Entering Thursday, the Phillies were 91-62, putting them 5 1/2 games ahead of the Los Angeles Dodgers for the No. 2 seed in the National League with only nine to play. They're almost certainly going to have a first-round bye and head straight to the Division Series to open their postseason.
But there are big decisions on the horizon for the Phillies and manager Rob Thomson as the NLDS -- the round in which Philadelphia got bounced from the playoffs a year ago -- looms.
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With ace Zack Wheeler lost for the year due to thoracic outlet syndrome, the Phillies have four main starting pitchers competing for spots in the playoff rotation, which will only begin as a three-man group, with the potential to expand.
On Thursday, Matt Gelb of The Athletic reported that the Phillies are "leaning" toward using three lefties -- Cristopher Sánchez, Ranger Suárez, and Jesús Luzardo -- over veteran right-hander Aaron Nola, who owns the most playoff experience of the group.
"Phillies manager Rob Thomson would not commit to a postseason rotation; the Phillies have said the specific matchup could be a factor," Gelb wrote. "But the club is fully leaning toward using its three left-handed starters — Sánchez, Ranger Suárez and Jesús Luzardo — as the rotation for the NLDS.
"It could be in that order. Sánchez and Luzardo are hard throwers, and Suárez is not. It could be beneficial to stick Suárez in the middle as a change of pace."
Leaving Nola out would be a tough pill for the 32-year-old to swallow. He's only in year two of a seven-year extension, for one, and he's also pitched to a 4.02 ERA in 10 career playoff starts, including a 3.24 mark in the NLDS.
However, in terms of recent performance, it's hard to reward Nola for his 6.44 ERA and negative-0.6 wins above replacement when the three lefties have all had extended stretches of dominance.
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