It's been 13 years since the Phils last appeared in the postseason. That is a long time of suffering. Last year, they came up one game short. This year, they practically gave up, dumping players and salary at the trade deadline. General Manager Pat Gillick even publically stated that they would not compete until 2008.
But here they are, just one game out of the wild card lead with 4 games remaining.
Two small issues though.
First is that the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres keep winning. San Diego leads the NL west by 1/2 game and are 7-3 in their last 10. LA leads the wild card and are also 7-3 in their last 10. They won on a walk-off grand slam the other night, gave up 11 runs today and still won by eight. How in the world can the Phillies catch that?
Second issue is that the Phillies don't seem to want it enough. They did everything in their power to lose last night, blowing save opportunities in the 9th and 10th innings. Luckily they finally won in 14 innings to keep pace. But they had lost two in a row prior to that.
But they still trail by a game, which means they have to win at least one more than LA in order to force a one-game playoff and win two more to win the wild card outright. There is no way they win two more than the Dodgers. LA only has three games left (in San Francisco). After tonights game with Washington, the Phillies travel to Florida.
Sorry to say, but it's not going to happen. They will once again finish just short.
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