Phillies manager Rob Thomson says exactly what you want to hear from MLB's best team

The Philadelphia Phillies are off to the best start in franchise history with a 37-14 record through the first 51 games of the season. Winners of nine out of their last 10 games, the Phillies hold a healthy 6.0-game lead over the rival Atlanta Braves for sole possession of first place in the NL East.

With a tired debate regarding the Phillies' strength of schedule still playing out on social media via rival fan bases and a handful of skeptical baseball writers and pundits, the Phillies have done nothing but block out the noise and decimate teams on the diamond. That trend continued this week when the Phillies swept the defending World Series champion Texas Rangers in a mostly one-sided affair at Citizens Bank Park.

With a tougher schedule and some international travel coming in June, there will be plenty of opportunities for the Phillies to prove their critics wrong. Meanwhile, with a trio of series against the Colorado Rockies, San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals to close out the month of May, the Phillies have a great chance to add to their division lead even more.

If you think the franchise record 50-game start has the Phillies clubhouse looking past the regular season with their heads in October, you'd be very wrong.

Phillies manager Rob Thomson says exactly what you want to hear from MLB's best team

The Phillies entered the season with a goal to begin the season strong out of the gate and not find themselves scratching and clawing back in the standings like at the mid-points of the 2022 and 2023 seasons. With the bitter taste of last October's playoff meltdown against the Arizona Diamondbacks gone but not forgotten, this is a Phillies team that seems hellbent on succeeding in ways previous teams have failed.

Speaking to reporters following Wednesday night's 11-4 spanking of the Rangers, manager Rob Thomson was asked how his team's early success through 50 games compares to the 42 previous teams who started the season on the same pace.

Speaking about the 2001 Seattle Mariners, who won 116 games but failed to win a championship, Thomson was dismissive of what the accomplishment means in the short term.

“What did they do at the end?” asked Thomson. “You’ve got to keep going. You just got to keep grinding, keep pushing all the way through.”

“I think they're very confident,” Thomson said of his lineup, per MLB.com's Mark Feinsand. “Right now, it really doesn't matter what type of game we're in. We feel like somebody's going to do something to get it done. That's a good feeling to have.”

"No doubt. No doubt," Thomson said after Thursday's win when asked if losing in the NLCS last year has helped this year's team. "The new guys that have come in have bought right into it. There's kind of an edge to everybody. They want to finish it."

First baseman Bryce Harper echoed his manager's sentiments after hitting home runs in the first two games of the series.

“We’ve got a long way to go,” Harper said, per Feinsand. “You play a full season for a reason, so we just have to stay the course, stay confident and just keep doing our thing.”

It's safe to say that Thomson has kept the Phillies clubhouse humble and on an even keel throughout this recent stretch of dominant play. While the team certainly looks like it's having fun, it's clear that despite all of the silly dances on the base paths and wacky post-game celebrations, this is a team that's serious about the task at hand. So far, the results speak for themselves.