The feeling is already there, the Phillies' season is special

There is no fast-forward button on the Major League Baseball season. The Phillies are going to have to play through the rest of September before getting to October.

And that's a very good thing.

Sure, everyone is anxious to get to the postseason and see what this stellar pitching staff and been-there, done-that lineup can do. And sure, a series like the rainy, low-wattage affair that just ended in Florida epitomizes the tedium of a 162-game regular season.

But the other night, over a few beers with friends, the extraordinary nature of this season was driven home. The Phillies were winning with Cole Hamels on the mound, and everyone seemed to take for granted they would win another game. When they didn't - when the combination of Antonio Bastardo and David Herndon led to a rare blown lead - there was a sense of near shock.

They what? They lost? How?

That brought back something Jamie Moyer said during spring training. As special as winning his first World Series was in 2008, with his hometown team, Moyer said he considered his 2001 season in Seattle right up there as a memory. That Seattle team tied the major-league record with 116 regular-season wins. The Mariners lost in the American League Championship Series, but that didn't erase the wonderment of the preceding six months.

"It was an amazing feeling," Moyer said, "coming to the ballpark every day knowing, just knowing, you were going to win."

Winning a title is the ultimate goal of every season. But look at it this way: Someone wins the World Series every year. Winning 116 games is literally a once-in-a-lifetime accomplishment.

This Phillies team is not going to match those Mariners. That unlikely scenario became mathematically impossible over the weekend when the Phillies lost two games to the Marlins.

(Coincidentally, or maybe not, Mike Cameron hit a home run to help the Marlins Saturday, then drew a walk to bring in the winning run Sunday. Cameron was Moyer's teammate with those 2001 Mariners. Only in baseball.)

So even if they somehow won the rest of their games, the Phillies would reach "only" 114 wins.

This isn't about going for a record, anyway. This is about that feeling Moyer described. Turns out it doesn't stop at the clubhouse door. When a team is as good and consistent as these Phillies, when winning becomes almost assumed two-thirds of the time, that feeling spreads over the entire region.

The two losses gave the Phillies just their eighth losing streak of the season. They lost four in a row twice, two in a row six times. The '01 Mariners lost four in a row once, two in a row 11 times.

At their current pace, the Phillies would win 105 games. That would put them among the top 25 winningest teams of all time. One more win would put them in the top 20. So we're talking about a remarkable and rare team here, even before October arrives.

After three soggy days in a mostly empty football stadium, the Phillies will face the second-place Atlanta Braves for three sold-out games at Citizens Bank Park, starting Monday. Then they go to Milwaukee for four games in what will surely be a playoff atmosphere in Miller Field.

Because they've been so good all season, the Phillies could lose all seven of those games and still be in first place in the National League East. That is about as likely as Chase Utley singing the anthem before a game, but it reinforces just how special this season is.

This week's games are important for reasons other than the standings. With the postseason field all but decided, the Phillies will almost surely have to beat one of these teams to reach the World Series - probably in the NLCS. It may not help in October to beat on a team in September, but it certainly can't hurt. Especially with these pitching-reliant Phillies. Hitters who have success against Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, and Hamels now are that much less likely to be intimidated by them in the playoffs.

Part of what makes this Phillies team special is its day-in, day-out competitiveness. Each of the starting pitchers brings a high intensity to the mound on his day. The hitters are all hardwired to bring it: Utley, Ryan Howard, Shane Victorino. All of them, really.

It is a combination this city hasn't seen from a baseball team very often. For too many years, August and September were spent going through the motions of meaningless games. Longtime fans remember those seasons all too well. Younger and late-arriving fans may be more at risk for taking this most remarkable of seasons for granted.

That's a mistake. Ask a fan of the Mariners, who've had one winning season since 2003. Instead of a fast-forward button, try to hit pause every now and then. It's worth it.