PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Rob Thomson raised his bottle of bubbly for a toast within the clubhouse after the Phillies become the final crew in baseball to clinch a playoff spot. The Phillies supervisor then went to take a swig out of his bottle and — doink! The cork used to be nonetheless within.
Two rainy and wild postseason events later, Thomson has mastered the artwork of uncorking his bottle whilst guidance the Phillies towards a shot at their first World Series championship since 2008.
“How many more wins?” he requested after the Phillies gained their NL Division Series in 4 video games.
“We’ve got eight more Topper!” catcher J.T. Realmuto shouted, the use of Thomson’s nickname.
With that, the birthday party used to be on complete blast, and the legit anthem of the postseason celebration, “Dancing on My Own,” used to be cranked to 11 to kick off the thrill. The Phillies sang, danced and became empty beer packing containers into cardboard hats, and cigar smoke wafted right through the clubhouse.
And why no longer?
First, the Phillies dumped the 93-win, NL Central champion St. Louis Cardinals after which outscored the Atlanta Braves 17-4 in two house video games that despatched the protecting World Series champions packing.
Up subsequent, Games 1 and a couple of of the NLCS this week towards the 89-win San Diego Padres. The Phillies gained most effective 87 video games, however who cares now? The Phillies positive don’t. Not as soon as Rhys Hoskins spiked his bat on a monster homer. Or Realmuto become the primary catcher in postseason historical past to hit an inside-the-park house run. Or as Aaron Nola tossed October ace time out after October ace time out. Bryce Harper had the Phillies believing with 3 postseason homers and a staggering 8-for-16 effort in 4 video games towards the Braves.
Harper hit yet another giant quantity, even on an off day — he became 30 on Sunday.
The Phillies did all of it in Games 3 and four as Phillies fanatics packed Citizens Bank Park in numbers — and delirious noise ranges that examined eardrums — no longer noticed since the halcyon championship days of the Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley and Ryan Howard generation.
“They work hard for everything they have,” Harper mentioned of the fanatics. “And I’m getting chills because it fires me up, man. It makes me want to win that much more. And when they show out for us like that, it makes our team that much better. And there was 46,000 people in this stadium, plus 26 on the field. We’re all together.”
The early clinch shall we the Phillies open the NLCS with their aces so as. Zack Wheeler is anticipated to begin Game 1 on Tuesday and Nola, who took an excellent recreation into the seven inning within the wild-card clinching get started, will get the Game 2 nod. Both pitchers must be to be had to begin on quick leisure as soon as the collection shifts to Philadelphia over the weekend.
The Phillies are 5-1 to begin a postseason for the primary time in franchise historical past and the primary time they’ve gained 5 of six in any postseason stretch since 2009. Of path, they didn’t do a lot so as to add to these win totals after 2011.
The Phillies spent a decade in baseball purgatory and appeared destined to spend a couple of extra years there till proprietor John Middleton pried Harper clear of Washington in 2019 and signed the loose agent to a 13-year, $330 million deal. They traded for Realmuto in 2019. They signed NL house run champion Kyle Schwarber and Nick Castellanos to free-agent offers this season. And they swung trade-deadline offers this 12 months for Game 4 starter Noah Syndergaard and outfielder Brandon Marsh. Marsh hit a three-run house run in Game 4.
“It’s one thing to think you can win. It’s another thing to win when you know you can win,” a sopping wet Middleton mentioned within the clubhouse. “When a team comes together like that, it’s a very powerful force.”
Middleton and the Phillies give a big piece of credit score to Thomson, who become most effective the fourth supervisor in primary league historical past to take over a crew no less than seven video games below .500 and lead it to the postseason. Thomson, the primary Canadian-born supervisor to steer a crew to the postseason, went 65-46 to complete the season.
“I don’t think any of us are shocked about where we are,” Harper mentioned. “We’re really excited about the opportunity ahead for us, and we’ve taken every opportunity and tried to go with that. And we’re just all excited as a club and a group that we can go out to the West Coast and play.”
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