‘This is the standard now’: The Phillies proved something with their World Series run

HOUSTON — A few minutes after the final out was recorded on Saturday night, causing streamers to fall and fireworks to explode and the Astros to storm the field, Rob Thomson addressed his team.

The Phillies manager congratulated his players, and they congratulated him. They’d weathered a lot of challenges this year — a managerial firing and the injuries of Bryce Harper, Jean Segura, Zack Wheeler, and Nick Castellanos, to name a few — and still made it to the World Series. There was a lot to be proud of.

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But beyond that, Thomson wanted to leave his players with a message to think about during the offseason. He kept it short.

“[He said], ‘This is the standard,’” Brandon Marsh said. “This is the standard now. It’s always been the standard, but now that we’ve tasted it, and know what it’s like to be on the wrong side of it, we’ll be shooting for it next year.”

Marsh is right; since spring training, months before he even donned a Phillies uniform, making it to the Fall Classic was the goal. But few outside of their clubhouse believed they would actually get there. And when they did, the Phillies were viewed as the vast underdogs; the 87-win David to the Astros’ 106-win Goliath.

Getting two wins away from a World Series title, only to see it slip away, stings. But the Phillies believe they proved something with this run — not to themselves, but to the rest of the world, which doubted them.

“We were an 87-win team that missed our MVP for a good chunk of the season,” said catcher J.T. Realmuto. “I think that speaks volumes, and I think the way we played in the postseason … it’s not like we were squeaking out games and barely beating these teams. We were sticking it to these 100-win teams. We were playing a good brand of baseball.

“I don’t think anyone will think the Phillies were lucky. The way we played in the postseason, there was no luck involved.”

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Their track record speaks for itself. The Phillies went 11-6 in the postseason. They didn’t face their first elimination game until Game 6 of the World Series. They beat the St. Louis Cardinals — a team with not one, but two MVP candidates — in two games in a best-of-three series on the road. They beat the reigning World Series champion Braves in four games in a best-of-five. They beat a red-hot Padres team in five games in a best-of-seven and gave the Astros their only two losses of this postseason.

The outside world looked on in disbelief, but the Phillies always maintained that internally, they were not surprised. They believed they’d be here.

“There was a lot of talk about us getting hot,” said first baseman Rhys Hoskins. “And, sure, we got hot. We had some stuff go our way, and a little bit of momentum gained during the postseason, but I also think we’ve been hot since June. We’ve played baseball at a pretty high clip. A pretty high standard for most of the summer, and I think that carried into the postseason.”

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As the Astros celebrated on the field, many of the Phillies players lingered in the visiting dugout, watching an opposing team live out their dream. It’s an image that will be seared into their minds for a while. But pitchers and catchers report in 100 days. And from there, anything is possible.

All they need to do is get into the playoffs. Maybe next November, they will be the ones sprinting onto the field for one last glorious celebration. But even if they don’t, one thing is for certain: The Phillies proved, once and for all, that they deserved to be there.