Ladies and gentlemen
Your new wild card leaders, the Philadelphia Phillies. Unbelievable.
After two days were they needed just one of San Diego or Los Angeles to lose in order to get at least a share of the lead only to have them win, the Snakes finally obliged by knocking off the Dodgers last night and here we are.
With 8 games left for the Phils, here are some mileposts for the rest of the season:
- If they win one more game they’ll have a winning season for the fourth time in a row and the fifth time in 6 years. That doesn’t seem like much but it’s a measure of how awful this franchise has been that there have only been two other stretches that have topped that in the past century. The obvious one is the late 70’s-early 80s stretch of teams, but the other isn’t the Whiz Kids. Gene Mauch’s teams from ‘62 through ‘67 were above .500 for 6 straight years, although frequently just over.
- If they split their remaining 8 games, they’ll be at the 85 win mark that was being tossed around a while back as a reasonable target for what it would take for a wild card team. They should get there, but I’m not sure it would actually be quite enough. It might be though.
- 5-3 would leave them at their favorite record of 86-74 (same as 2001, 2003, and 2004) and that would require the Dodgers to go 5-2 to tie them and 6-1 to knock them out completely. If I were to make bets on it, I think this is what I’d pick as the most likely win total for the Phils and I think it would be just enough.
- 7-1 would match their record of last year and would mean that the Dodgers couldn’t actually pass them. That seems like a long shot, but would be really entertaining after where they were a few months ago.
I have to admit, there is something rather satisfying in seeing them take 5 out of 5 games from the Marlins and Astros the past two weekends. Given how much frustration those two teams have cause the Phils in recent years, it’s nice to see things reversed. Now if they can just take two more the next couple of days I’ll be really happy.