I have to admit, I was starting to doubt things. At least until Saturday night, when the Diamondbacks lost a winnable game to San Diego that kept the Phillies up by a game and in control of their destiny. Suddenly, it seemed fathomable that the Phillies wouldn’t collapse. The cruelty of it for Arizona fans, a kind of consolation to an otherwise rough week for Phillies fans.

This is the second time in club history that the Phillies have made the postseason five straight years, and I was here alive for both. That’s not lost on me. My grandfather didn’t see them play a postseason game until he was twenty and they were swept in the 1950 World Series, and didn’t see them back again until he was 46. He saw one title at age 50, three NL Pennants, and 7 playoff appearances in 76 years. I’ve seen 11 playoff appearances, four NL pennants, a championship, and been at four World Series games in person. This franchise, known for historic losing in it’s history, has actually been a very good franchise from 1976 on- two championships, six NL Pennants, and 15 postseason appearances. It’s not Yankees, Dodgers, Braves, or Red Sox good in that time, but it’s also better than most teams. Combine that with the greatest run of Eagles football since before color television, and I have to call myself a lucky Philadelphia fan.

There’s no sense writing a post-mortem about this team yet. They could be done playing baseball as soon as Wednesday. They also might not. Atlanta is very good. So is Los Angeles. So is Milwaukee. Chicago won’t be an easy out. San Diego is hot right now. The National League is a brutal path to the World Series for whoever comes through it, and while everyone is good enough to do it, I’m not sure there is a really clear favorite to do it this year. Even if you get through that, you’ll still need four more wins against someone who will be red hot after winning the American League. With Luis Arraez hurt and Zack Wheeler now unavailable, the Phillies should be a tremendous underdog against Atlanta. But well, we’ve heard that before. I’m pretty sure we need a new manager and hitting coach, at least two new players in next year’s lineup, and a lot more depth than we have. But if you just line up the Phillies best players on their roster against any other teams, which is usually how October baseball is decided, you realize they’re very competitive, if not better, than some of the “better” teams. The Phillies should lose. The point is that they might not.

There was a lot of fan and media chatter about not wanting the Phillies to make the playoffs so they would “break it up.” That’s everything wrong with Philadelphia’s sports media in a nutshell, but it’s also just flat out stupid. I agree they need some changes to freshen up the roster for next season. The idea that you want to go back to not being a playoff team though is silly. The Phillies didn’t have a super active offseason last year because they were basically at their budget, and the market lacked younger right handed bats that would shake up their older, lefty heavy roster. It took a while for Andrew Painter to figure it out, but he had a sub-4 ERA in the second half and showed you he can survive in the big leagues. Justin Crawford hit over .280 from June 1 on, which frankly is what he needs to do to be a big leaguer. Alex Macfarlane was probably the most stabilizing force in that bullpen down the stretch. Giving the kids a shot paid off this season. Do they need to do more for next year? Sure. But realistically, this was not a season they had lots of options. They kind of are what they are.

And now what they are is in the playoffs. See you Tuesday.