The Philadelphia Phillies’ season once looked like it was slipping away before it had even properly started. They were 9-19 after the first 28 games of the 2026 regular season, prompting a managerial change. Under interim manager Don Mattingly, the Phillies showed a remarkable turnaround. Fast-forward to September, and they were occupying the final Wild Card spot.
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The final stretch, however, didn’t turn out to be as smooth as they expected, and a 12-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays left their postseason hopes hanging by a thread. After Philadelphia spent months reversing their initial disaster, it came down to Game 162, where they needed to win to clinch a playoff berth. A 7-3 victory over the Rays finally delivered the moment Mattingly and his team had been fighting for.
“Hey everybody, top to bottom. From the clubhouse guys, the training staff, to the front office, to everybody here in this room. All the time, y’all got a piece of this. And it’s never easy, right? No, it’s just the start,” the manager said in the locker room after the win. “No matter how you get in, you just gotta get in. And we’re f***ing in. Let’s go. Let’s f***ing get it!”
Most people were certain that the Phillies would make it to the postseason before they lost 14 games in September. The biggest hit they took was dropping back-to-back games against the Rays in their final series of the regular season. To make things worse, the D’backs were just 1.0 game behind, with both having only one remaining game. But instead of losing his mind, Don Mattingly found some positivity in the way the Phillies fought till the end during their 12-1 defeat on Saturday.
“A lot of fighting bats at the end. I was actually encouraged at the end of that game,” he added after the huge loss. “So I’m being overly optimistic, but I was encouraged tonight.”
While the skipper remained positive, the frustration at Citizens Bank Park was impossible to miss. People were expecting the team to secure a playoff spot. Instead, they experienced a fourth straight loss.
And the boos were loud as soon as they fell behind 3-0 in the first inning. After they lost, even Mattingly’s encouragement was not able to motivate the fans. They feared the manager’s blood and sweat might eventually go in vain, and the only thing that could help was turning the confidence into action on Sunday.
The team did exactly that and got through to a well-deserved October ball. And after overcoming the whirlwind month and the tension of failing at the last moment, the manager was asked how he felt.
“A little relief, but a little excitement as well,” he told the reporter after the game. “We put ourselves in a good position early in the month, and we just didn’t play the way we’re capable of. But at the end of the day, you’ve got to get in, and I think as we get in, it’s like a relief.”
He also praised Zack Wheeler, who allowed 5 hits and just 1 earned run over 6.0 innings. While he restricted the Rays from adding runs to the scoreboard, the lineup kept piling up on the other end. Alex McFarlane allowed two runs in the seventh, but the Phillies comfortably won 7-3 in the end. Although they dropped the series, it didn’t really matter.
The Philadelphia Phillies clinched the last Wild Card spot and will face the Atlanta Braves now. While Don Mattingly admitted that it went the way they had hoped, he knows that this is not the end. It’s just the start of the actual fight, and the Phillies will aim to end their 18-year World Series drought. That’s why he delivered a simple message to the entire team:
“Let’s f***ing get it!”