“We feel like we were made for these moments.” – Phillies catcher JT Realmuto
PHILADELPHIA – He puffed on a cigar that appeared to be about the size of the Walt Whitman Bridge. The party drinks were still dripping from every crevice of his clubhouse and its residents. And on the giant scoreboard directly behind him, six words said it all:
THE PHILLIES – ON TO THE NLCS.
But as Realmuto strolled through the infield at Citizens Bank Park Thursday night, hugging a procession of family and friends, he knew the big baseball story across America wasn’t: THE PHILLIES – ON TO THE NLCS. No, America seemed much more focused on:
THE BRAVES – NOT IN THE NLCS.
And …
THE DODGERS – NOT IN THE NLCS EVEN.
Not to mention …
THE ORIOLES AND STAYING RAYS – NO LONGER PLANNED TO PARTICIPATE IN THE ALCS
So here’s our question – and his: Why are we so obsessed with who isn’t still playing in the postseason when there’s such an obvious reason teams like Realmuto’s October giants, the Phillies, are still playing?
And that reason looks like this:
You’ve probably noticed by now that October baseball is practically a completely different sport than April-September baseball.
Here’s an idea: Maybe we should stop looking for excuses for teams going home. Instead, let’s take a closer look at why teams like the Phillies — and their partners in last fall’s World Series championship, the Astros — continue to find ways to survive and advance.
“I think there’s something special about baseball in October,” said Realmuto, still wearing the glow of the Phillies’ 3-1 NLDS victory over the 104-win Braves. “And to see the teams that are successful in this environment and succeed with so much pressure, when the games mean so much, it takes a lot more focus in the postseason.
“In a 162-game regular season, it’s hard to stay focused like that. In my opinion, seeing which teams are successful here and play well in this situation is what baseball is all about. That’s what you play for.”
Spencer Strider dominated the Phillies in the regular season. But the postseason was a different story. (Eric Hartline/USA Today)
But even as he uttered those words, a very different conversation was taking place just a few hundred yards away in the dejected clubhouse of baseball’s winningest team (April-September Division), the Braves. You can probably guess how that went.
It’s normal to wonder what went wrong with the loss of clubhouses this time of year. It never used to be normal to buy into the conspiracy theory that this was somehow baseball’s fault and to devise a playoff system designed to “sabotage” the chances of the sport’s best teams (April-September division). .
Well, you know who wasn’t interested in this conspiracy theory? The Braves’ losing pitcher – their ace, Spencer Strider. And good for him.
“We’re not a group that makes excuses,” Strider said. “I’m not a person who makes excuses. I’m sure there are a lot of Braves fans out there who are unhappy, and they have every right to be. We have no one to blame but ourselves. Personally, I wasn’t good enough.”
Still, Strider was asked, wouldn’t a different postseason format be fairer – perhaps a best-of-seven Division Series instead of a best-of-five, for example?
“No,” he replied. “I think the people who are trying to use the playoff format to make an excuse for results they don’t like are not dealing with the real issue. You are in control of your focus, your competitiveness and your energy. And if you can’t make that adjustment with five days off, you have no one to blame but yourself.”
So as we begin to reflect on the lessons of October (so far), we must start with the team that America loves to hate, but with the team that will destroy every single one of these conspiracy theories…
THE ASTROS — So if it’s the system’s fault that the best teams lose in October every year, how do we explain the Astros? If those five days off that the top two seeds earn before the Division Series are such a buzz-killer (and a season-killer), shouldn’t someone tell the Astros?
Last October, they had the same five days off as everyone else… and still won their first two series and didn’t lose a single postseason game until the World Series.
Then again this year, they won the American League West on the final day of the season, again taking the same five days off as everyone else… and beating the Twins in four games. So is it apparently possible to delve into the first round and still move on to bigger and better things? Huh. What do you know? This doesn’t fit everyone else’s narrative at all.
The first-round bye didn’t stop this Astros juggernaut. (Jesse Johnson/USA Today)
“Anyone can talk about the off week, but look at a team like Houston,” said Kyle Schwarber of the Phillies. “They’re… back in the ALCS. So I think there’s something to be said about teams that maybe haven’t had that much success all season, but when they get into those moments, they find ways to win.”
And of course he also means… his team. So let’s take a look at some of the baseball lessons the Phillies are teaching us in October.
Sometimes the record doesn’t reflect the talent – The man who built the Phillies, Dave Dombrowski, has done this before. In fact, over and over again. He built World Series teams in Florida, Detroit and Boston and now a fourth in Philadelphia. So he obviously knows exactly what is important.
“Well, first of all, we have a good team,” he said Thursday evening, his champagne-soaked baseball cap turned back on his head. “And we’ve actually been playing well for a long time. After coming off a 25-32 start, we were basically playing at a 100-win pace and our team kind of came together.”
Dombrowski’s team-building motive is no secret. He has assembled a star-led roster, a pitching staff full of high-speed arms and a clubhouse full of baseball fans who love playing as much as being together. But when Dombrowski, the Phillies’ president of baseball operations, was asked how much of that was intentional, the result of the constant search for players ready for such moments, he laughed.
“Well, I mean, it’s hard to identify exactly,” he said, “because if it were easy, everyone would be doing it.”
But it’s amazing how often Dombrowski has used the phrase “championship quality player” over the years to define what attracts him to the latest star he’s signed or traded. He has proven over his four-decade career that he knows that quality when he sees it. And the 2022-23 Phillies have now spent the last two Octobers proving it.
With that in mind, we’ll take a quick break to remind you of a few things this group has done:
• It has now beaten Strider three times since last October. No other team in the sport has handed it more than one defeat in these 12 months.
• Capitalizing on their stadium-loving fan base, the Phillies went 10-2 at home in the last two postseasons – and an incredible 9-0 against the other National League playoff teams they faced.
• The Braves hit just more home runs (307) this season than any other lineup in NL history. Then the Phillies went out and outscored them 11-3 in that series. Only once all season (mid-September) did the Braves give up 11 runs over a four-game span.
• And that also means that the Braves as a team hit fewer home runs in this series than Nick Castellanos — a man who didn’t hit a single home run for the Phillies last postseason — hit in a span of six at-bats alone this week.
• Then again, the Phillies’ barrage of long balls didn’t just start this week. The Phillies have now hit 24 home runs in their last 10 postseason home games dating back to last year. And how many other teams in postseason history have bombed that many long balls over a 10-game span? According to our friends at STATS Perform, it wouldn’t be.
• Which ultimately means the Phillies hit more home runs (11) than they allowed runs (eight) in this Braves series. And that’s the perfect segue into the next October lesson they taught us…
BUILD STRENGTH (AND KEEP THEM HEALTHY) – Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola and Ranger Suárez started all six of the Phillies’ games this postseason. They have allowed a total of six earned runs – in six starts. That’s an ERA of 1.54. This is how you win in October.
Meanwhile, in those six games, the Phillies have rolled out their full complement of relievers providing heat in the upper 90s – giving up a total of two runs, both on Austin Riley’s game-winning two-run homer off Jeff Hoffman in Game 2 of the NLDS. That’s an ERA of 1.26. That’s another way to win at this time of year.
In Game 1 of the NLDS, Phillies manager Rob Thomson orchestrated the first nine-inning, seven-pitcher shutout in franchise history. In Game 4, he waved to his two most trusted bullpen weapons, Jose Alvarado and Craig Kimbrel, in the sixth and seventh innings, respectively – and still had enough depth behind him to navigate to the finish line. And yes, that’s how you win in October.
“You know, at the beginning of the season,” Realmuto said, “we struggled a little bit … but when you have something like we have on our team, later in the season they figured it out and it took off.” That’s why I trust our guys’ performance against any team in baseball. This is an incredible lineup that we just played against for four games.”
But one more thing: The Phillies also managed health and workload so effectively this year that they somehow — miraculously — arrived in October with all key arms of their staff healthy. Compare that to the health (or lack thereof) of the Dodgers or Braves personnel — and isn’t it obvious that’s how you win in October, too?
Zack Wheeler (pictured), Aaron Nola and Ranger Suárez have given the Phillies strong performances this postseason. (Dale Zanine/USA Today)
COLLECT GUYS WHO LOVE THE MOMENT – October is a parade of game- and team-defining moments. Isn’t it hard to remember a roster so full of hitters who capitalize on those moments when the Phillies pitch in every game?
“If you look at everyone on this team, I think everyone wants to have that quote/unquote moment,” Schwarber said. “But when we get into that moment, that’s a quality that’s hard to achieve, where everyone is able to calm themselves in the craziness and really lean into the punch.”
So where does this calm come from in these moments? Well, it’s always helpful…
BUILD AROUND A SUPERSTAR – I’ve already written a column this offseason highlighting Bryce Harper’s special ability to rise to the occasion. And Schwarber’s theory is that watching a teammate relieve pressure the way Harper does can have a powerful ripple effect on any team.
“Bryce is a great example for everyone,” Schwarber said, “to look and observe when the moment is the biggest and brightest that he can be.” And when you look at him in the box, you don’t feel dizzy. Look at the pitches he takes. There’s nothing fancy about trying to get something.
“You stay within yourself. And that’s exactly what this team does particularly well: they stay within themselves. And if you stay within yourself, explosive things can happen.”
Bryce Harper sets the tone for the Phillies. (Bill Streicher/USA Today)
So it’s no longer APRIL, MAY, JUNE, JULY, AUGUST OR SEPTEMBER – The season is a marathon – a test of daily courage, squad depth, system reinforcements, health and happiness. It takes a village to survive the season. But it takes all of the qualities we just highlighted – very different qualities – to break up in October.
As Dombrowski said, if it were easy to find these qualities, every team would do it. But by now we should know them when we see them. And Braves manager Brian Snitker was the first to admit he saw them with the Phillies.
“We were beaten by a really good club,” he said on Thursday evening, “who have a fondness for this time of year.”
How should we define this preference? “There is no magic formula,” Realmuto said. But there are only four teams left in our October Madness tournament. So doesn’t it make more sense to study these teams and figure out what got them here than to figure out who is responsible for why eight other teams never made it this far?
The blame game could sound a long way off. But the Phillies? They can tune out this talk — because they’re in the NLCS to play a Diamondbacks team that could be as perfectly built for baseball under the new rules as it is for any other offense in the sport. But now these D-backs are the latest team that has every reason to fear the Phillies because, as previously mentioned, this is their season.
“This team just feels like we’re built for October,” Realmuto said. “Look, of course we would like to win 100 games in the regular season. We’d like to run away with the division like the Braves have done for the last six years. But at the end of the day, our goal is to win a World Series. It’s not necessarily about beating the Braves. It’s not necessarily about winning the division. It’s about winning a World Series.
“So now we know,” he said, “we’ve lost two series – and two more to go to reach our goal.”
Tyler Kepner of The Athletic contributed to this story.
(Top photo of Kyle Schwarber (left) and JT Realmuto celebrating after the Phillies advanced to the NLCS: Tim Nwachukwu / Getty Images)