PHILADELPHIA – Watching the Phillies in September the last few seasons has been rough. This season, however, the storyline is different. The Philadelphia Phillies are currently in the playoff race. It’s unreal. This could be the year. Could this be the season Phillies fans get what they have been waiting for since 2011?

Coming into the season, expectations were high for this ball club, looking to have the type of season baseball fans expected with the lineup the team had put together.

The Phillies began the season with a record of 22-29, and questions began to arise in the city about what may have been causing the problems.

On June 3, news broke in the early afternoon that the Phillies fired their manager Joe Girardi, and the interim manager would be Rob Thomson. They went on to win eight straight games with Thomson as their manager, and now sit at 80 wins, winning 58 of those with Thomson in charge. Looking back on the season, it’s clear that Girardi’s firing was a major turning point in the uprise of this ball club.

Entering September, the Phils had a three-game lead over the Milwaukee Brewers for the third wild card spot in the National League. With only a couple more weeks to go, that margin has been trimmed down to 2 1/2 games.

Coming down the stretch, players are getting healthy and returning from their injuries. With some tough series ahead for both teams, it remains too close to call who will be the final wild-card team. Both ball clubs know what’s at stake, and now have to play every game as if it is their last for the year to earn that playoff berth.