For the third straight season, the Philadelphia Phillies sizzle out and fall short of the ultimate goal, a World Series championship. While this season and postseason run played out much differently than previous seasons, it ended with a familiar sighting.
With no heartbeat at all from the lineup and a solid but un-clutch pitching performance for the staff, the Phillies were just another pit stop for the red-hot New York Mets, who climbed their way out from the sixth seed and final Wild Card team to now being on their way to Los Angeles for Game 1 of the NLCS.
Phillies got a taste of their own medicine in NLDS loss to Wild Card Mets
The Mets' current run on the back of clutch hitting and vibes are eerily similar to that of the 2022 Phillies.
The Mets are doing a Phillies to the Phillies because the Phillies are doing a Braves and the Braves already did a Mets
— Foolish Baseball (@FoolishBB) October 8, 2024
Almost all of MLB looked at the road the Mets had to overcome and wrote them off. First, they had a tough road trip, including flights back and forth to Milwaukee and Atlanta, and ended the season with a doubleheader on the last day.
After that was a date with the Brewers where they played in an electric series that took every ounce of skill to win.
They then had to go into Philadelphia on short rest and win against the team with the second-best record in all of baseball, one that was heavily favored, and, of course, a division rival.
Stop me if you've heard this before.
In 2022, the sixth-seeded Phillies took down a veteran-led, NL Central champion St. Louis Cardinals at their home stadium before traveling to Atlanta and stealing Game 1. They took their vibes back home and finished off the series in four games, taking down the historic 2022 Braves and advancing to the next round.
There are countless similarities among the teams. Whether it is the position they were in, backs against the wall, underdog mentality, or even the way the actual series played out, strong pitching performances, timely hitting, and immense energy, the vibes coming off the 2024 Mets are ringing out across baseball.
Does that mean the Phillies are the Braves?
In essence, yes.
The Phillies failed to live up to expectations and were blindsided by a hot and hungry underdog team looking to take its place as a perennial team in the MLB playoffs, just as the Braves were just a few years ago.
Whether it is the momentum, the layoff, the energy, or just overall bad play, there is no real excuse for the loss. With the pitching fully rested and lined up, the Phillies were unable to stifle the magic carpet ride of a season up in New York.