Stairs, rips one into the night, deep into right, way out of here. Swam on. Get it. Cross. And the Phillies are going to lead it. Harper, the swing of his life. The O2 pit, swing and a miss. Struck him out. The Phillies are going back to the playoffs for the fourth year in a row. Hey there, podcast, pals. I'm John Stolness from The Good Fight. You can follow me on X& Blue Sky at John Stolness. We have got another Red October coming your way as the Phillies on Sunday clinched a playoff spot but did not do the big thing that we were hoping they would do, which is clinched the National League East. but of course, a week ago, if you'd have told me there was even a chance this team would

clinch the division on Sunday after the series against the Royals, I'd have told you you were crazy.

But after an incredible week of baseball and an incredibly awful week of baseball by the Mets here

in Philadelphia and then at home against the Rangers, the Phillies magic number stands at one as they get ready for a big series in Los Angeles

against the Dodgers.

So on this edition of the roundtable, we will, of course, revel in the fact the Phillies are in the

playoffs for a fourth straight year.

We know a division title is up next, and we can start thinking about October.

We can start thinking about best record about October. We can start thinking about

best record in baseball. We can start really thinking about this huge series this week,

determining who gets the first round by in the playoffs in the National League, if the Phillies

can get that number two seed at least. So Liz Rocher, Justin Klu, joining me here to break this

all down on this episode of the podcast.

Justin, of course, from Baseball Prospectus. He also hosts a couple of podcasts over at our hit and season Patreon, the dirty inning and absolutely hammered. Follow him on X and Blue Sky at Justin Klu. Not on X, just Blue Sky at Justin Klu. I always forget that. Justin, how you doing, bud? Good. you know, I was so enraptured, as many people were in watching the Pat Murphy read Bob Euker's letter to the Brewers after they clinched a playoff spot, which was just, I don't know, just a crazy, you could tell everybody like really understood what that meant and it was like this big, moment. I love Bob Euker and it was just it was awesome. And then all we got to talk about in the Phillies post game was how they like had shielded everything for a champagne shower

and then didn't. And that's depressing. And the t-shirts stayed in the boxes. Like the writers really like to make hay out of like, yeah, you thought it was going to be good, didn't you? Well, it wasn't. But now we have to wait. And you're like, well, it's an unfortunate outcome, but didn't dampen my spirits any for this team at this point

in the season and how well they've been playing lately.

Yeah, there's very little Liz that can dampen this team.

Dampen the way fans feel about this team right now.

Of course, Liz Rocher, the editor of Sabres, Baseball Research Journal, follow her on X and Blue

Sky at Liz Rocher.

I mean, just a phenomenal week of baseball by this Phillies team that is hitting their stride.

I said it on, I think, the midweek edition of the podcast, can we just bottle this and have it ready to go in October?

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