Bowa and Manuel know how important momentum is for the postseason

As the Mets entered the middle innings on that postcard-perfect afternoon, they had just built an early lead over the Phillies. That didn't sit well with two baseball apprentices sitting in the back of the press box at Citizens Bank Park.

Charlie Manuel and Larry Bowa have combined for 1,117 Phillies wins. To put that in perspective, that's more than 10 percent of all the wins ever for a franchise that began operations in 1883.

At that moment, the topic of conversation was the importance of heading into the postseason with momentum. The Phillies seemed to be heading for their second straight loss, and the franchise icons were just a little upset.

“You can't flip the switch,” Bowa said, repeating an admonition he has often made in his managerial career. “You have to run at full speed until you win. You can't lie.”

Maybe the Phillies didn't flip a switch on Saturday. But they came back and won 6-4, thanks to Bryce Harper's first two home runs in a month and another big contribution from a substitute. The hero of the day this time was outfielder Cal Stevenson, who doubled the tying and winning runs with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning and also made two spectacular defensive plays on the warning track, the second of which robbed Mets designated hitter JD Martinez of a home run to center in the top of the eighth inning.

Still, the Phillies will struggle with whether to finish strong in the final two weeks of the regular season.

Manuel remembers 2011 well. The Phils won 102 games, still a franchise record, and lost their eighth straight game in the first game of a doubleheader against the Mets on Sept. 24 with just four games left until the playoffs began.

Not wanting to enter the postseason on a downward trend, Manuel pushed to get his team back on track. In fact, they finished with four straight wins, including a 13-inning victory over the Braves on the final day of the regular season…but were eliminated in the first round by the Cardinals.

“I was concerned about how we played back then,” he said Saturday. “You can definitely rest your players too early. If I were in the Phillies' position now, I would definitely want a bye in the first round.”

That's the difference, of course. When Bowa and Manuel were managers, the two best results of the three division winners were not enough to get a bye in the wildcard round. That only strengthened their belief that going full throttle in the current playoff structure was the way to go.

“At the moment I would definitely play for the home field,” said Manuel. “And for the bye. In the first round you can get caught off guard.”

Bowa echoed that sentiment. “I never thought there was a home field advantage in baseball. But in this park? I believe there is a home field advantage, honestly. I don't think there is one anywhere else,” he said.

“When you have a lead like that, there's something else that comes with it. You mentally say, 'We're good.' And we are. It takes something really bad to happen (not to win the division). But in the last week, I'm letting all these guys play. Turn them back on. I'm not letting them sit on the bench. Because they can rest during the break.”

In 2022, the Phillies secured the final wild-card spot by just one game over the Brewers and then made it to the World Series. “For the last three weeks, every game has been like a playoff game. The Mets have played every game like a playoff game for the last, I don't know, month? There's something to that,” he said.

“If they go in and say, 'Ah, so we've lost the last 14 games 4-10?' And now you have a week off? I would be worried. I would definitely be worried. You want to play well. You don't want to falter.”