If it were to happen, would it mean anything?
The manager says it would not.
"We're a veteran team and we know how to play," Charlie Manuel said. "I'm very open to saying that I do think we are the best team in our division and that we should win our division. And the reason I say that is we know how to play and we have an idea on how good that we are. It's up to us to go win.
"If we don't finish strong, or something like that, I would look at it like we've got a veteran team and [that] when it's time for us to play, we'll be ready."
This is just one more byproduct of winning last season. This is a team that knows its capabilities. Fans don't like to relax because, well, they don't - but if there is anything that this Phillies team has shown over the past couple of years, it is the ability to answer the bell.
There are fallow stretches sometimes. There can be a maddening inconsistency in their offensive approach sometimes; Manuel has taken to harping lately on the Phillies' hitting with runners in scoring position, but it seems like it's just to have something to talk about.
But there is little doubt that they will give you what they have in October - and that is true, whatever September brings.
As Manuel said, "That's how I kind of see our team on a day-to-day basis."
There is no magic formula where September predicts October. Go back through the last 10 major league postseasons and this is how it shakes out for the teams that make it to the World Series:
Eleven had red-hot Septembers.
Five had solid Septembers.
Four had lousy Septembers.
"I think coming in hot definitely plays a big role at times," Manuel said, but the results really are all over the lot. Last year, for instance, Tampa Bay was 13-14 in September and still got through two rounds in the American League playoffs to make it to the World Series.
