Phillies' postseason drought projected to end this season
PHILADELPHIA -- It's been more than a decade since Philadelphia saw playoff baseball. This year's Phillies team is doing all it can to put an end to the second longest postseason drought.
"Is it August?" Rhys Hoskins said.
Red hot summer, meet red hot Phils.
As the mercury rises, so do the Phillies in the standings.
Over the last 11 games, the Phillies are 10-1 and that includes a four-game sweep of the Washington Nationals.
"We're playing good baseball. We really are," Phillies interim manager Rob Thomson said. "We're getting good pitching, really played good defense the entire four games in this series. And we're swinging the bats right now."
The numbers are staggering.
They slugged 42 hits.
They hit a team record 14 homers in the series.
Hoskins homered in all four games.
"They come in bunches. I've said that a ton," Hoskins said. "As much as the homers are great, I still take pride in the fact that I'm able to get on base a couple more times throughout the series too. Yeah, ride it out as long as we can."
Hall of Fame baseball writer Jayson Stark of The Athletic has seen it all with this Phillies team over the decades.
He says this magical run starts at the top.
"I think it starts with Rob Thomson, doesn't it?" Stark said. "There's a stability that Rob Thomson has brought to every aspect of this team that I think you see reflected in how they go about it every day. They've got a better record since Rob Thomson took this job than the Yankees, the Astros or the Mets. I don't think anyone could have seen that happen on June 3."
Entering Monday, the Phillies hold the second wild card spot in the National League with a 60-48 record. The Phils are ahead of the 61-50 San Diego Padres by winning percentage. They hold the tiebreaker over the Padres, too.
With three wild card spots, the Phillies also hold the tiebreakers over the St. Louis Cardinals (60-48) and Milwaukee Brewers (58-50). At the moment, it appears to be a seven-team race for six playoff spots.
With 54 games remaining, the Phillies have a 92.8% chance of making the playoffs according to baseball-reference, a 74.3% chance according to FanGraphs and an 84% chance according to FiveThirtyEight.
The Phillies haven't made the playoffs in nearly 11 years -- or 3,958 days. But who's counting?
