Matthew De George on the Phillies

PHILADELPHIA — The 15-game spread in the standings is unequivocal. With the regular-season measurement between the Phillies and Braves concluded, only one thing remains to be gleaned from their two September series.

Each of the seven times the teams meet this month, every bit of minutiae will be dissected for the purposes of playoff preview. The last two teams to represent the National League in the World Series, no one would be shocked if they meet again in the postseason.

And so, the Phillies’ 10-8 loss in 10 innings followed by a 7-5 win in the nightcap didn’t just comprise a consequential doubleheader. It provides tea leaves to read in case their 2023 postseason paths cross as 2022’s did.

A year ago, there seemed to be little chance around this juncture of the season that the Phillies could beat the Braves in a postseason series. Atlanta won 101 games, played .700 baseball over the last two months and chased down the Mets for the National League East title. The Phillies stumbled into the playoffs, tasked with winning their way into a meeting with the Braves on the road, where they were a sub-.500 team, with any number of glaring roster quandaries.

And yet … four National League Division Series games later, the Phillies holding the Braves to seven runs over the final three games, and the Phillies were off to San Diego, while the reigning World Series champions got an early jump on their offseason.

This year, there seems to be no way that the Phillies can beat the Braves in a postseason series. The first team to clinch postseason baseball this year, the Braves saw their division lead grow to 16 games after the Game 1 win, while the magic number to clinch the division shrank to four.

And yet … this year’s 3-5 record against the Braves compares to last year’s 8-11 mark, which by October seemed not to matter.

“We didn’t play well against them last year and we beat them in the playoffs,” manager Rob Thomson reminded. “I’m not saying that’s going to happen, but it can happen.”

Game 1 offered pointers for what the Phillies can’t do if they want to pull another October upset. They can’t allow an Atlanta starter in a giving mood — Charlie Morton issued four walks — off the hook. They can’t have the bottom four combined to go 0-for-17 with 10 strikeouts, with Jake Cave’s walk the lone productive plate appearance. They can’t supply extra bases, as Cave did in bobbling an Austin Riley first-inning triple to allow him to score.

They can’t allow five free passes — three walks, two hit by pitches — by starter Taijuan Walker, putting him under constant pressure in his 5.1 innings even if only one of the five scored.

“I felt like for the most part, I was able to keep them off balance and got some weak contact for the most part,” Walker said. “But when you give five free passes to a team like this, it’s not going to be an easy day for you.”

And yet … for all those no-no’s committed, the Phillies still muscled their way into extra innings.

Back-to-back moonshots surrendered by Andrew Bellatti in the sixth turned a 5-4 game into an 8-4 hole. Trea Turner halved the deficit in the seventh with a two-run jack, then Bryce Harper played the hero for the umpteenth time in pinstripes with a two-run bomb to left-center with two outs in the ninth off Braves closer Raisel Iglesias.

Save for Bellatti, the Phillies kept the Braves in the ballpark.

No small feat given that the Braves are up to 275 home runs this year, tying the 2019 Twins for the most in the first 145 games of a season. The Twins would go on to slug 307, the record the Braves are chasing. They showed what their big bats can do, all eight runs coming from Turner, Harper and Kyle Schwarber. They made Morton work if they couldn’t quite land the killer blow.

The flipside to Game 1’s work to play catch-up was the Game 2 quest to keep tacking on. It wouldn’t be enough to stagger the Braves and rehabbing pitcher Kyle Wright on the mound in the first inning. Two runs, thanks to a sac fly and a Nick Castellanos bloop single, were nice to start from an inning in which the Phillies loaded the bases with no one out. The third and fourth, supplied by Edmundo Sosa’s ringing double, were necessary tack-ons.

But even four would not be enough, not with Michael Harris II homering in both halves of the double dip, not with Matt Olson hitting home runs 49 and 50 in the nightcap. To put down the Braves would require moments like Jake Cave’s RBI triple in the fourth, then Brandon Marsh’s solo home in the fifth, enough cushion for the bullpen.

“We’ve gone through stretches this year where we’ve gotten a lead and didn’t tack on,” Thomson said. “Lately, we seem to be doing a pretty good job of that. Just keep having good at-bats and keep moving the line, and eventually you’re going to score runs.”

Monday reinforced the likely tone of a postseason series. The Phillies started last year’s NLDS by jumping all over Max Fried and scoring seven runs in five innings in Game 1, needed cushion for a 7-6 win. The next three games were tight, beyond the second-inning demolition of Game 3 starter Spencer Strider, until the sixth inning of Game 4 broke open the dam.

Two games and 30 runs on Monday seem more likely for this year. Playoff maxims about pitching and defense aside, the only hope is to contain the pop both teams have made reputations around.

“This is crunch time,” Walker said. “This is when it gets exciting. We could be seeing them in the postseason. We’ve got to focus up and start playing better baseball.”

Monday should show the Phillies that staying close to the Braves is possible. But it also illustrates just how hard it will be.

To contact Matthew De George, email mdegeorge@delcotimes.com. Follow him on Twitter @sportsdoctormd.