Rich Hofmann: Phillies fans, it's time to trust

AROUND HERE, we do love and we do hate. We also do cynicism, parochialism, adulation, indignation, respect and scorn, all at an impressive range of decibel levels.

What we do not do is trust - which, when you really think about it, is all the Phillies have wanted all season.

They won the thing last year and they went about their business this year and you wondered if they would be given the benefit of the doubt, the genetic doubt that Philadelphians seem to carry. They never seemed to play harder than they needed to play, mostly because nobody was really chasing them for most of the summer. They always said - in the same words they used in 2007 and 2008 - that they would be there when it mattered. As they stumbled at the end here, they waited for the town to hear.

Now, Phillies-Rockies . . .

Waiting for them to turn it on again . . .

Waiting . . .

Trusting?

Because we all know the past pattern, how they would act when put in a predicament, when pushed, when prodded. What would they do?

"Step it up," reliever Ryan Madson said.

When pursued, when it mattered most?

"Absolutely," Madson said. "I think that's how our team is. It starts with our leaders - they really do step it up . . . and it really gives everybody else confidence, that we can beat anybody."

The truth is that all three division winners in the National League - the Phillies, Dodgers and Cardinals - have leaked enough oil the last few weeks to stain driveways in several time zones. Only the wild-card Rockies have played well, mostly because they had to play well. The division winners all had playoff spots essentially locked up for a month and played like it. In the longest sports season, human nature sometimes rules - and it isn't always pretty.

It also became pretty much meaningless late yesterday afternoon, when the regular season mercilessly ended.

As Shane Victorino said, the wins and losses do matter a bit in these kinds of situations but, "You want to find out, 'OK, where am I at?' Because, again, now you throw out all you have done, all the numbers. Everybody is zero-zero-zero right now. You go out and take one at-bat at a time. If you hit .400 last month or if you hit a buck, it's just all out the window now."