The Phillies are on the verge of the worst collapse in the city’s history. That says something.
The goal now is to avoid infamy. It is to preserve legacy. It is to summon the last shred of political capital they earned in 2022 and escape from Game 162 with a reason to believe.
The goal is no longer to make the playoffs.
The goal is to avoid making history.
The Phillies are on the verge of it. Know that. It can be difficult to recognize when you are living through it. Think of the worst you ever heard. Make it worse. This is it.
For the vast majority of us whose sports consciousness had not yet dawned in 1964, the year has always been one that occupied the same narrative spaces as walking to school in the snow uphill both ways. As bad as things were when they were worse than we ever had it, we never had it that bad. The great Phillies Phold of ‘64 wasn’t an urban legend as much as it was an origin story.
To watch sports is to suffer.
» READ MORE: Phillies will need Game 162 to get into the playoffs, or complete their collapse after another loss to Rays
Well, here we are. The 1964 Phillies had a 6½-game lead with 12 games to play. The 2026 Phillies had a five-game lead with eight games to play. It does not get worse than this.
However it plays out, whatever happens on the final day of the regular season, whether the Phillies win, or see the Diamondbacks lose, or the inverse occurs, they have already accomplished something in the least sense of the word. They have forced us to consider what was long held to be the epitome of impossible.
By the end of a 12-1 loss to the Rays on a cool, wet, desperate Saturday night in South Philadelphia, the current era of Phillies baseball had been reduced to the hollow sound of bat on ball that echoed through a near-empty stadium that had long before lost its will.
Embarrassment is not nearly a strong enough word to describe the precipice upon which the Phillies currently stand. It may not even be an emotion they are collectively capable of feeling, given the lack of soul they’ve displayed over the last two-plus seasons. And maybe that’s what you get when you build a team full of players who are here primarily because you offered them more money than anybody else. Maybe that’s your soul.
Maybe.
There have been many instances over the last several years where the Phillies have appeared to be better than that. Much better, at times. They played the first two months of last season at a 106-win place. They played the eventual world champion Dodgers close to even before bowing out in a National League Divisional Series. Nobody can question the individual competitive integrities of guys like Bryce Harper and Zack Wheeler and Kyle Schwarber and J.T. Realmuto. And, yet, the totality of what we’ve seen since mid-October 2023 suggests there is something lacking in the collective. Whatever that thing is, isn’t there right now.
The goal now is to avoid infamy. It is to preserve legacy. It is to summon the last shred of political capital they earned in 2022 and escape from Game 162 with a reason to believe. It will be one thing to make the playoffs. It will be another to do so and also offer a reason to believe that they’ve accomplished anything greater than delaying the start of their offseason by another few days.
The biblical tone is warranted. The Phillies are on the precipice of a disaster that transcends even their own lengthy track record of misery. Barely more than a week ago, the math said they had a 99% chance at making the playoffs. With eight games to play, they had a five-game lead for the final NL wild-card spot. They entered Wednesday needing some combination of two wins and Diamondbacks losses to clinch a playoff berth. That number will still sit at one when they take the field Sunday for Game 162.
It will sit there in spite of — because of? — their understanding that Game 161 was one they needed to win. Interim manager Don Mattingly’s decision to start Aaron Nola on two days’ rest backfired in a manner as spectacular as it was predictable. By the time a lot of folks realized the Nor’easter-delayed game had started, the Rays were up 3-0, courtesy of a loud home run by Tampa Bay’s Junior Caminero. The conditions did not improve.
By the start of the seventh inning, the Phillies needed a touchdown and an onside kick and a field goal just to tie the game. They had the bases loaded in the seventh and eighth. They ended up getting an extra point. Long before then, the focus had turned to Sunday, with an inch of rain predicted to fall.
» READ MORE: Alec Bohm is the symbol of changes that might be coming to the Phillies. Who else could be on the way out?
The metaphors write themselves. As do the hypotheticals. We needn’t dive into them now. They’ll be actualities soon enough. Even if the Phillies win on Sunday, how can we possibly believe in a team that failed to win a game in its most desperate moment? Worse still, what if they lose and still sneak into the playoffs because of a Diamondbacks loss? Does any of it matter now that Mattingly is treating his pitching staff like they are playing Game 7?
Questions like these are what Monday is for.
Mattingly, Gene Mauch, 2026, 1964 ...
The only thing to do right now is watch the story unfold.
Let's talk about the Phillies' bullpen. Larry Andersen happens to be an expert on the subject. The popular Phillies radio analyst had a 17-year major-league career in which he appeared in 699 games – all but one in relief. He joins Phillies Extra to break down the biggest question standing between the Phillies and a long run through October: How will they bridge the gap to closer Jhoan Duran? Watch here.
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