Philadelphia Phillies should be proud just to have been in NL East race

Saturday’s loss to the Atlanta Braves officially eliminated the Philadelphia Phillies from the race to win the NL East.

Despite all of their struggles from the previous two months, the Philadelphia Phillies still had a small chance of winning the NL East title if a few things ended up going their way, even if it seemed like an absolute long shot.

Not to mention, the Phillies would be facing the Atlanta Braves, who have been sitting on top of the division for weeks, plenty of times during this final stretch to catch up their rivals in the division standings.

Unfortunately, Philadelphia made it pretty clear right away over the last couple of days by losing three in a row to Atlanta, with the most painful loss coming on Saturday afternoon.

With the loss, the Braves officially won the NL East title for the first time since 2013, meaning the only chance of the Phillies reaching the playoffs is through the Wild Card, which is another absolute long shot at well.

By trailing the St. Louis Cardinals 7.5 games for the final Wild Card spot in the National League, their just isn’t enough time for Philadelphia to put together any last-second magic to extend their season into October.

Frustrating? Absolutely. When taking into consideration how it wasn’t that long ago in which the Phillies were sitting on top of the division, and seemed to be in an amazing position to make a push for the playoffs, it’s crushing to see their 2018 campaign end up this way.

However, keep in mind this is a Philadelphia team that nobody expected to compete in the first place for a playoff spot, whether it was due to the last couple of seasons, or adjusting to Gabe Kapler as the new manager.

Seeing the Phillies more competitive than expected brought some much-needed excitement to this fan base for the first time in a while, but also, these last couple of weeks have shown this is a team with plenty of learning to do.

Clearly, the inexperience by most of these younger players caught up to Philadelphia when the team needed it the most in the win department since now there’s no guarantee of the team even finishing above .500 on the overall season.

Still, at the end of the day, the Phillies should just be proud of the fact they exceeded all expectations in 2018 by actually showing they have what it takes to be a competitor in the National League, and figure out a way to get even better in the offseason.

Plus, if Philadelphia were to end up landing a big-name player such as Manny Machado or Bryce Harper, the learning experience from this current season along with the new talent would take their chances of competing in 2019 to a whole new level.

But before jumping that far ahead, let’s just take a moment to sit back, and appreciate the surprise success this Phillies team had this season to make things a little more exciting for their fans, even if it did get frustrating these last two months.