Kyle Schwarber belly-flopped more than he actually slid headfirst into second base and popped up with his uniform smudged in dirt. He punched his right fist in the air and shouted something in exhilaration toward a fired-up Phillies dugout.
Schwarber delivered with a clutch two-run double, yes. He also showed the fire, the fight that vanished from the Phillies during a treacherous week that sent them from the brink of a wild-card clinch to the edge — and yes, the bottom was crumbling — of an all-time franchise collapse.
His slide had Phillies fans roaring from their feet — perhaps more than a few who wore brown paper bags over their heads a night earlier — and instantly all felt right on a soggy day inside Citizens Bank Park.
Zack Wheeler pitched a gem against Tampa Bay on Sunday and untangled a few thousand knots inside the stomachs of Phillies fans, and even from those inside a mostly solemn clubhouse. The Phillies survived their perilous five-day scare and are indeed headed to the playoffs for the fifth straight season after beating the Rays 7-3 to clinch the final NL wild-card berth.
“We didn’t play the best baseball we could in September,” slugger Bryce Harper said. “Should we have clinched two weeks ago? Probably, right? But we didn’t. We clinched today.”
Jhoan Duran struck out Nick Fortes to seal it. Duran pounded his mitt and was greeted by teammates for a fairly muted celebration on the field.
The Phillies got more rowdy inside the clubhouse and sprayed cheap beer and bubbly as bottle caps floated in booze-soaked puddles on the carpet while Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” was cranked to 11.
Philadelphia did indeed survive a freefall that coincided with the Arizona Diamondbacks getting hot over the final week of the season. The Phillies’ slam dunk of a playoff spot morphed into something much more tenuous.
