Phillies avoid collapse, modern-day 1964 moment with win on final day: ‘You’d much rather be in the postseason than not, right?’

PHILADELPHIA — Phillies owner John Middleton remembers it well all these years later.

Sitting in the second deck on the third-base side of Connie Mack Stadium back on Sept. 21, 1964, a 9-year-old Middleton watched in horror as Cincinnati’s Chico Ruiz broke for the plate. A “huge Phillies fan” at the time who attended games and checked scores “religiously” in the newspaper, the executive saw his favorite team fall on a sixth-inning steal of home, triggering a 10-game losing streak. A seeming shoe-in for the National League pennant, the club blew a 6.5-game lead with only 12 to play. The memory endures for the Philadelphians who were around to experience the heartbreak.

“I have a lot of bad, vivid memories,” Middleton said of the 1964 Phillies’ collapse.

On Sunday afternoon at Citizens Bank Park, in Game 162 against the Tampa Bay Rays, the 2026 Phillies avoided a similar fold with a 7-3 victory to secure the third NL Wild Card spot. They almost suffered a similar fate. They entered September in the top Wild Card position, 6.5 games clear of the Diamondbacks. They had dropped one spot by Sept. 18, but still led Arizona by five games with eight to play.

Somehow, after a brutal final stretch, it came down to the last day of the regular season. Philadelphia controlled its own destiny, but it was still in danger of missing the playoffs. Behind a six-inning, one-run performance from ace Zack Wheeler, a four-pitch eighth inning out of the bullpen by the freshly activated Jesús Luzardo and a resurgent offense, the team avoided disaster. The path there wasn’t pretty, but it’s better than the alternative.

“Obviously,” Middleton said with a pair of ski goggles atop his head during the postgame celebration, “you’d much rather be in the postseason than not, right?”

That’s certainly the truth. By losing four games in a row heading into Sunday, the Phillies cost themselves a chance to set up their pitching for the NL Wild Card Series against the Braves. Atlanta will have former Cy Young Award winner Chris Sale lined up for Game 1 on Tuesday afternoon at Truist Park, barring anything unforeseen. Rookie Andrew Painter will be Philadelphia’s only fully-rested starter available, although Luzardo said he’d be able to do whatever the team needs.

At the very least, they’ll have a shot. The 1964 Phillies didn’t have that luxury with 10 teams in the NL and 20 teams in the major leagues overall. The top club from each league met in the World Series, with no other postseason series. After the Phillies fell behind the Cardinals in the standings that year, they didn’t get to move on.

While Middleton acknowledged that last week was “kind of a living hell” for him, he kept faith in his team. He was worried — “How could you not be worried?” he said — but he thought the Phillies would get it done this year. He didn’t see a repeat of 1964 in the forecast.

“No, because this is a much better team than that team. This is way better pitching, offense frankly. If you go back, Johnny Callison lost something like 20 pounds during the season. He was great, but he just was so strung out by the end of the season. These guys weren’t that way. They weren’t that tired. They were struggling, but they weren’t tired like that.”

Interim manager Don Mattingly used Aaron Nola on two days’ rest to start a bullpen game on Saturday, but the Phillies weren’t so desperate that they rode their top starters like Gene Mauch did with Jim Bunning and Chris Short in 1964. Most importantly, they did enough to clinch, no matter how it looked.

Ultimately, their season will be decided by what comes next. Just making the playoffs is not the standard for a group that has now made it there five years in a row. But as Middleton, and anyone who was there in 1964, would tell you, holding on isn’t always so easy.

“I was really proud of the guys,” Middleton said.