Beating the defending world champs gives the Phillies their skin on the wall for reaching the WS. If it had been the Padres, it would have been the same thing about them beating LA.
Beating the Padres and the Cardinals was no great shock for the Phillies to do, but they were still an after thought entering the post-season, especially with the Braves and Mets looking poised for another round.
They have a good story for the year, no doubt. Joe Girardi stunk the joint up and got ****-canned after 51 games and they played 65-46 ball the rest of the year. it's not that dissimilar to the 2004 Astros when we fired Jimy Williams at 44-44 and Phil Garner came in and the team went 48-26 the rest of the way.
Phils went 52-29 (.641) over the summer months, than had a losing record in Sept/Oct, so it definitely had the feeling of "just happy to be here" when the Brewers pissed the bed and lost the wild card. Philly had two different 5-game losing streaks after September 15 and still snuck in.
But now they are hot, and since Aaron Judge is gone, everyone has to kiss the feet of Bryce Harper because he plays on the East Coast, he's white, and he hasn't won the World Series.
Dynasties are boring to the media, unless it's in LA, Chicago, New York or Boston. Philly is new blood, so they're getting the hand job until we start beating the piss out of them.
Life is better with a beagle