Century 21: Some historic Phillies numbers rapidly approaching

Posted by Kevin Durso

Philliedelphia/Kevin Durso

It's that time of year again. That's right, the Phillies are just 21 combined wins and Braves' losses away from their fifth straight division title. Hard to believe when it's only September 2nd.

A whole lot of numbers have come out since the Phillies won their game yesterday against the Reds. Here's a look at a few:

• The Phillies magic number to clinch the NL East is down to 21. Every Phillies' win and Braves' loss lowers the number by one.
• The Phillies magic number to clinch a playoff spot is down to 12. Every Phillies' win or Cardinals' loss lowers that number.
• The Phillies magic number to clinch home-field advantage in the Postseason is 21. Every Phillies' win or Brewers' loss lowers that number. (Note: the Phillies have four games against both the Cardinals and Brewers and six games against the Braves in their remaining schedule of 29 games.)
• The Phillies need just 13 more wins for their 100th win of the season. That would be just the third time in franchise history the Phillies recorded 100 or more wins in a single season.
• The Phillies are 14 wins away from tying the franchise-record of 101 wins in a season, accomplished in both 1976 and 1977.
• The Phillies are 15 wins away from setting the franchise-record in wins for a season.
• With 16 more wins, Charlie Manuel will pass Gene Mauch as the winningest manager in Phillies' history.
• The Phillies finished yesterday with an 87-46 record, 41 games over .500. That's just the third time the Phillies have been that many games over .500 in franchise history. They have never been 42 games or more above .500, so that tells you what a win tonight would do for the Phillies.

So, you might just want to pay attention to the history coming your way. If you're looking for the likeliness of these events happening, figure this. The Phillies have 29 games left. To get to 100 wins, the Phillies need to go 13-16 in those games, three games below .500. To tie the franchise record, they need to go 14-15, also a record below .500. And for the franchise record, the Phillies need just a 15-14 record. Here's how easy getting to that mark looks. If the Phillies win every series from now until the end of the season, they would finish with a record of 20-9 (including a spilt of their September 15th doubleheader with the Marlins).

To put into perspective just how much control they have on the division, the Phillies could play .500 baseball, at 14-15, the rest of the season, and the Braves would need an astonishing 22-5 record to win the NL East. And six of those games would be against the Phillies. So, assume this…the Phillies are (essentially) in the playoffs. The Phillies will (sooner or later) clinch the NL East. So take every loss until October with a grain of salt, because as long as the Phillies stay on track to finish their record-setting season, everything else will just fall into place.