Jose Alvarado’s first 17 games this season were some of the worst of his baseball life.

On May 25th, he gave up a home run to Austin Riley in Atlanta that broke a tie game, and the Phillies would go on to lose. They would win the next night, but then go on to lose five in a row, leading to the firing of manager Joe Girardi.

Alvarado wasn’t there when that happened. He and his 7.62 ERA and his 2.00 WHIP were shipped to the minors to try and figure out what the hell was wrong.

Fast forward nearly five months later – 143 days to be exact – and Alvarado was again facing Riley and the Braves. But this time, it was completely different.

In that short span, Alvarado went from bullpen outcast to the team’s most reliable reliever, and now, instead of pitching from a minor league mound, he was throwing from the hill at Citizens Bank Park in front of 45,660 wildly ecstatic fans with his Phillies inching ever closer to knocking the defending World Champions out of the playoffs and earning a berth in their 10th National League Championship series, and first since 2010.

In his second inning of work, Alvarado got Riley to ground out to Rhys Hoskins. Alvarado covered the bag and did a little celebratory hop step off it.

Next, he got Michael Harris to ground out to short. The crowd was going wild, the Phillies were seven outs from an improbable berth in baseball’s final four.

He saw manager Rob Thomson coming to get him, he knew Zach Eflin and Seranthony Dominguez would take it from there.

As Alvarado walked off the mound, he received a standing ovation. The dichotomy of this from where he was against the Braves in May, was not lost on him.

“To see the crowd and see how they were cheering for me – it felt unbelievable,” he said. “These last two games, this city has been amazing. I love Philadelphia. They are the best.”

Alvarado responded by waving back to them. Thanking them for their support:

It was just one of those moments from a memorable game that will go down in Phillies lore as one of their all-time playoff classics.

Brandon Marsh started the party with a three-run shot. J.T. Realmuto hit an inside the park homer – the first catcher to ever do that in a major league playoff game, and Bryce Harper, who would have been MVP of the NLDS, if such an award was granted, put the icing on the cake with a solo shot in the bottom of the eighth.

The Phillies won 8-3, defeating the Braves 3-1 in the series and await the winner of the Los Angeles-San Diego series in the NLCS, which will start in Southern California on Tuesday.

“It’s really amazing, but it’s a testament to every player in this clubhouse, said Bryson Stott, who has already had three clubhouse champagne and beer celebrations in his rookie season. “I want to do this every year. Hopefully we have two more in us.”

The way the Phillies are going right now, they are playing like a team of destiny. They’ve won five-of-six games this postseason, some with their pitching. Some with their hitting. And on days like Saturday, a bit of both.

Marsh started the party with a 3-run bomb off Charlie Morton in the bottom of the second:

Dave Dombrowski, who is the mastermind behind putting this roster together, traded highly regard catching prospect Logan O’Hoppe to Anaheim in exchange for Marsh at the trade deadline. Marsh proved to be better than he was performing in Anaheim, and this one was his signature moment of the postseason so far.

But if that wasn’t wild enough, Realmuto hitting an inside the park home run in the third inning was something special:

All the while, the Phillies pitching was doing it’s job. Noah Syndergaard pitched three strong innings, allowing just one hit, a solo homer by Matt Olson. Andrew Bellatti and Brad Hand were also efficient throwing in front of Alvarado.

Then, in the sixth, Rhys Hoskins had another big hit. It wasn’t a bat-spiking homer, but it was a two-run, opposite field single to put the Phillies up 5-2. Realmuto and Harper also singled in runs, and the game was blown open.

From there, the back end of the bullpen, the primary concern for the Phillies this postseason, was great. After Alvarado left, Eflin and Dominguez faced seven batters. They retired all seven and six of them were strikeouts.

Dominguez got the last out, and the party commenced:

And they sang:

And they partied:

(Yep I shot that that… took some champagne in the eye for you all.)

And they danced some more….

And oh, yeah… despite all the partying and celebrating and dancing, they are keeping their eye on the prize:

The Phillies have that look. That feel. That mojo. It’s a little 1993 and a little 2008. It’s a little Cinderella and it’s a little Stone Cold Killer. It’s its own living, breathing, pulsating, thumping, adrenaline-filled organism. And no one seems to know how to stop it, and isn’t that a beautiful thing for Philadelphia this Red October?

The thing is, it came upon us so quickly. Who would have ever thought they’d get here 10 weeks ago?

Well… this guy did, back on August 1: