With just a few weeks left in the regular season, the argument can be made that no team has been hotter lately than the Philadelphia Phillies–who recorded their seventh-straight win on Wednesday after a 3-1 victory over the Miami Marlins. The win puts Philadelphia just three games back of the St. Louis Cardinals of the final Wild Card spot in the National League, but the question on the minds of fans–will this turn into a simple case of too little, too late?
The Phillies knew they could be in for a rocky 2012 season considering they started the year without star players Ryan Howard and Chase Utley. Even with one of the top pitching rotations in baseball led by Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, and Cole Hamels, Philadelphia struggled over the first couple months of the regular season and it appeared their streak of five-straight NL East titles would finally come to an end.
While that will still be the case, Philadelphia has emerged out of nowhere as a surprise contender now that they’ve won 15 of their last 19 games and have a record over .500 for the first time since the beginning of June. Obviously, if the Phillies end up making the postseason, this would turn out to be one of the greatest stories from the 2012 season considering how much their backs are up against the walls.
Anything is possible over the next couple of weeks, but if the Phillies end up falling short of the playoffs and crush the hearts of their fans by giving them false hope–it will be more frustrating than devastating for the City of Brotherly Love considering everybody assumed their season was done over a month ago.
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