YONG KIM / Staff photographer
Phillies' Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino appear at ease during season-finale against Marlins yesterday.
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- Phil Sheridan: Setting the Phillies' dials back to zero
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- Rich Hofmann: Phillies fans, it's time to trust
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Rich Hofmann: Phillies fans, it's time to trust
AROUND HERE, we do love and we do hate. We also do cynicism, parochialism, adulation, indignation, respect and scorn, all at an impressive range of decibel levels.
What we do not do is trust - which, when you really think about it, is all the Phillies have wanted all season.
They won the thing last year and they went about their business this year and you wondered if they would be given the benefit of the doubt, the genetic doubt that Philadelphians seem to carry. They never seemed to play harder than they needed to play, mostly because nobody was really chasing them for most of the summer. They always said - in the same words they used in 2007 and 2008 - that they would be there when it mattered. As they stumbled at the end here, they waited for the town to hear.
Now, Phillies-Rockies . . .
Waiting for them to turn it on again . . .
Waiting . . .
Trusting?
Because we all know the past pattern, how they would act when put in a predicament, when pushed, when prodded. What would they do?
"Step it up," reliever Ryan Madson said.
When pursued, when it mattered most?
"Absolutely," Madson said. "I think that's how our team is. It starts with our leaders - they really do step it up . . . and it really gives everybody else confidence, that we can beat anybody."
The truth is that all three division winners in the National League - the Phillies, Dodgers and Cardinals - have leaked enough oil the last few weeks to stain driveways in several time zones. Only the wild-card Rockies have played well, mostly because they had to play well. The division winners all had playoff spots essentially locked up for a month and played like it. In the longest sports season, human nature sometimes rules - and it isn't always pretty.
It also became pretty much meaningless late yesterday afternoon, when the regular season mercilessly ended.
As Shane Victorino said, the wins and losses do matter a bit in these kinds of situations but, "You want to find out, 'OK, where am I at?' Because, again, now you throw out all you have done, all the numbers. Everybody is zero-zero-zero right now. You go out and take one at-bat at a time. If you hit .400 last month or if you hit a buck, it's just all out the window now."
It really is true. You can find evidence, if you want, that a hot-hitting team going into the playoffs will continue being a hot-hitting team. You can also find evidence that it won't continue. It is only normal to want to be playing well on the eve of the playoffs but the numbers really are all over the place.
Just take the Phillies and their last two trips to the National League Division Series. Look at the core guys on the current team who were there for both seasons: Victorino, Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Jayson Werth and Carlos Ruiz. Then look at what they hit in the first-round playoff series compared to what they hit in the last month of the regular season.
Over the two series, five hit for a higher average than they did in September. Seven hit for a lower average. And of the six players hitting above .280 in September, five of them hit below .200 in the first round of the playoffs in those two seasons.
The point is, you just don't know - which is kind of where the business of trust comes into play.
"Being through the playoffs last year, we have that experience," Victorino said. "I never let myself get overwhelmed last year. I think that was the biggest thing, if you look at last year. I don't think this team ever let itself get overwhelmed.
"I felt like we were just playing baseball," he said.
It is their attitude, their trademark - cool, confident Phillies. In a different incarnation, a different generation, the legend says that the Phillies only won the 1980 World Series after manager Dallas Green whipped the cool out of them. This bunch is different. Manager Charlie Manuel makes a point now and again, but there really has been no whip needed.
"It's definitely a winning atmosphere," said starting pitcher Cliff Lee, acquired just before the trade deadline. "These guys, they know how to play the game and they know how to have fun off the field, in between games and stuff. It's loose. It's a comfortable atmosphere.
"Obviously, the players are pretty good, too. It's the defending world champions. They've got a core group here already that's done some things. They know what it takes to win and they do things the right way. You can see it in the game and I can see it in between, off the field. It's a good thing to be a part of . . . "
But do you trust the Phillies to turn it on again here at the end? It really has been the question all year.
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