After dealing poorly with a week’s worth of suffocating pressure, the Phillies finally took a breath Sunday. They did something they’d done 87 other times this season, something that had become very difficult for them lately. They won a ball game. But it was no ordinary ball game. It saved their season and spared them the ignominy of forever popping up in search engines whenever someone wondered about the biggest sports collapses of all time.
On the backs of Zack Wheeler and an offense that suddenly rose from the dead, the Phillies beat the Tampa Bay Rays, 7-3, at Citizens Bank Park on the final day of the regular season to punch their ticket to the postseason as the National League’s third and final wild-card team.
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The Phillies, who finished the regular season at 88-74, will begin their fifth straight postseason Tuesday afternoon at Atlanta against a familiar foe. The Braves beat the Phillies in nine of 13 meetings on their way to the NL East title this season. But the Phillies are 3-0 all-time against the Braves in postseason series.
The final days of this regular season were excruciating for the Ph...