A lot happened last night, not just for the Phillies, but all around baseball.
Last night saw two teams, who a month ago looked like they had their respective wild card spots wrapped up, completely collapse and miss out on the playoffs. The Red Sox blew a one run lead in the ninth to lose to the Orioles 4-3, and eventually lose their playoff spot. The Braves. Well, we'll get to them in a second.
Two games that held playoff implications last night, had to be decided in extras.
And the Tampa Bay Rays, down 7-0 after seven innings against the Yankees, rallied back to tie it up and eventually win it 8-7 in the twelfth thanks to a walk off home run by Evan Longoria. Thanks to the Red Sox loss, the Rays were able to take the AL wild card spot with the win.
It has been an incredible regular season this year, and last night was an incredible conclusion to it.
The Phillies' regular season finale was no less thrilling.
Going into last night's game, the Phillies had the chance to set two club records. They had the oppurtunity to be the first team in franchise history to have 102 wins in a season with a win against Atlanta. A win also would make Charlie Manuel (645 wins) the leader in most regular season wins as a Phillies manager, surpassing Gene Mauch.
This team made history last night, and they did it in big fashion.
The Atlanta Braves were desperately clinging to their wild card spot, only leading by half a game over the St. Louis Cardinals.
Fast forward to the ninth inning, the Braves have a 3-2 lead, Craig Krimbel came in for Atlanta to try and secure the win and get the save.
With the bases loaded, Chase Utley hits a sacrifice fly to left, to score Pete Orr from third and tie the game up at three.
Kimbrel had been phenomonal as the braves closer all year, but last night, he faultered.
On to the thirteenth inning, with runners on first and third, Hunter Pence singled into shallow right to score Brian Schneider from third and put the Phillies up 4-3.
It would prove to be the winning run, as David Herndon finished the game by getting the Brave's Freddie Freeman to ground into a double play.
The Cardinals, trailing by half a game in the wild card standings going into last night, beat the Houston Astros 8-0, and won the wild card spot.
The Phillies not only set a franchise record in regular season wins, and Manuel setting the franchise record in mangaerial wins, but knocked their divison rival out of the playoffs.
The Phillies will face the Cardinals in the NLDS. The series begins with game one on Saturday.
Phillies.com
http://philadelphia.phillies.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2011_09_28_phimlb_atlmlb_1&mode=recap&c_id=phi#gid=2011_09_28_phimlb_atlmlb_1&mode=plays
CSN Philly.com
http://www.csnphilly.com/baseball-philadelphia-phillies/news/Phils-Manuel-reach-milestones-in-dramati?blockID=569218&feedID=693
ESPN.com
http://scores.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=310928115&teams=philadelphia-phillies-vs-atlanta-braves
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