Who knew that Walker Buehler would be 3-0 for the Phillies? The Red Sox retread has not exactly been stellar since joining the Phillies earlier this season, but he’s been good enough. With Buehler piggybacked with Taijuan Walker, the duo have been able to help get the Phillies through the loss of Zack Wheeler and the struggles of Aaron Nola.

Thursday night, Buehler (10-7, 4.93) threw five shutout innings and showed some escape artist magic to make it through five innings during which he allowed three hits and three walks, in addition to hitting a batter. The Marlins loaded the bases with two outs in the third and Buehler got Liam Hicks to pop up for the final out of the inning. Buehler seemed determined to get himself into a fourth inning jam, but again escaped with no damage. Otto Lopez singled to leadoff the inning and Griffin Conine followed by scorching a line drive that went right to shortstop Edmundo Sosa, who fired to first to complete the double play. Seemingly out of trouble, Buehler then hit Connor Norbi with a pitch before getting Troy Johnston to fly out to center field.

As fate would have it, Buehler’s final inning – the fifth – was one of two 1-2-3 innings that he threw in the game. Walker then came on and threw two shutout innings, allowing two hits and a walk and Matt Strahm followed with one shutout inning of work before rain fell heavily and the game went into a one-hour, one-minute rain delay. David Robertson came on in the ninth and gave up a two-out single just to keep the tension level high before he got the final out for his second save in his latest stint with the Phillies.

The only Phillies run came in the first when Harrison Bader led off with a single and one out later went to third on a base-hit by Bryce Harper who returned to the lineup after being sidelined for two games by an illness. Alec Bohm grounded to third and Bader came home on the play. After Harper’s single starter Janson Junk (6-4, 4.17) retired nine in a row before Bohm and Brandon Marsh put together back-to-back singles with one out in the fourth. Junk got the next two hitters to end the threat. The next inning Junk gave up a leadoff single to Bryson Stott which was followed by two groundballs that allowed Stott to move to third. Junk was lifted in favor of Cade Gibson, who walked Schwarber before striking out Harper to get out of the inning.

The Phillies finish the year 65-49 against National League teams and 31-21 against NL East teams. The final three games are this weekend at Citizens Bank Park against the Minnesota Twins.