The Philadelphia Phillies Clinch Their Third Consecutive Playoff Berth

The Philadelphia Phillies clinched their third consecutive playoff berth on Friday night with their win over the New York Mets.

Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images

The Philadelphia Phillies have officially punched their ticket to the 2024 MLB Playoffs on Friday night with a win over the New York Mets at Citi Field.

It is only the third time in the club's long history that they have gone to the postseason in three or more consecutive seasons, joining the 1976-1978 and 2007-2011 teams.

Despite currently holding the best record in MLB, it has not been as easy as it may seem.

Just one month ago, the Phillies were reeling with a 9-17 record through their first 26 games after the All-Star Break, after entering the break with a 62-34 record in the first half.

The Atlanta Braves moved within five games of the division lead as late as August 30th, but have been no closer than six games since August 31st.

The entire pitching staff seemingly went into a slump, with a combined ERA of 4.73 across 247 1/3 innings in the first 26 games of the second half, after pitching to a combined 3.41 ERA across 862 innings in the first half.

Philadelphia has regained their first-half form since August 18th with a 19-11 record over their next 30 games.

The Phillies' success this year has been a combined effort from the offense, the starting pitching, and the bullpen.

Philadelphia's offense entered play Friday ranked fourth in baseball in team OPS (.751) for the season, the starting rotation ranked fifth in ERA (3.73), and the bullpen ranked 14th in ERA (3.87).

It has been that all-around effort that has gotten the Phillies this far, and it will be an all-around effort that the club will need if they want to advance farther in the playoffs than they did in 2023.

The bullpen let Philadelphia down in its search for a World Series Championship in the 2023 postseason.

After taking a commanding 2-0 lead in the National League Championship Series over the Arizona Diamondbacks, recently DFA'd reliever Craig Kimbrel allowed a walk-off single in game three that would give the Diamondbacks new life.

Game four would be more of the same with Kimbrel blowing a two-run lead in the eighth inning, and allowing Arizona to tie the series at two games each.

The Phillies would win game five, in a 6-1 blowout, but would drop games six and seven at home to lose the series.

Those two home playoff losses would be the only two for Philadelphia in 2023, adding to their October home-field dominance that began with a 6-2 home postseason record in the 2022 season.

The home-field dominance has carried over into 2024.

With just three regular season home games remaining, the Phillies have gone 52-26 at Citizens Bank Park.

With a deeper roster than the 2022 and 2023 teams, and a vastly superior bullpen, Philadelphia seems primed to make a deep run into October, and it all started with clinching a playoff berth in New York.