It is an amazing telescoping of a six-month season that a playoff team will in some ways be remembered only for how it looks in the final glimpses of the postseason. It takes so much to get to this point, but in the end, they remember how you said goodbye, not all the hellos that came before.
"We lead major league baseball in wins. That's the first time in Philly history," manager Charlie Manuel said. "That's got to say something. You just don't cast those kinds of seasons away."
They did indeed win 97 games in the regular season, the most in baseball, and it was the only time the Phillies have ever done so, although they've only been playing since 1883. So, that isn't the kind of season to be lightly tossed aside, even if they don't succeed in making the World Series for a third straight year.
But the telescope effect, at least entering Thursday's game, showed the Phillies to be a team that wasn't hitting, wasn't playing particularly sharp baseball and was on the verge of unraveling on the mound as well.
"They've got a lot of life going," Manuel said of the Giants before the game, in what sounded like a concession to the encroaching reality of the situation. "It seems like every time that we do something they counter it, or anytime we make a mistake they definitely are there to take advantage of it."
The loss in Game 4 was still fresh in his mind at the time - the blown lead, the sloppy play, the tattered bullpen. Roy Halladay had the ability to turn that around all by himself, of course, and he made the effort. But Halladay also started Thursday's game already two-thirds of an inning over his career high for innings pitched, and he had neither the sharpness or location that were consistent in his 21-win season.
