It’s done. The drought is over.

The Phillies are going to the postseason for the first time since 2011, clinching on Monday night with a 3-0 win against the Houston Astros.

Much to Anthony SanFilippo’s delight, Aaron Nola was an absolute boss on the evening, giving up just two hits in 6.2 innings while striking out nine. NBC Sports Philadelphia jinxed it with the “perfect game alert” chyron, “but that’s okay,” as Joe Cordell would say. Jose Alvarado came in and finished the eighth with two runners on, then Kyle Schwarber and Bryson Stott homered in the eighth before Zach Eflin closed it out in the 9th.

It wasn’t always pretty in 2022, but this team deserves a TON of credit. They looked like dreck early, were 28-29 on June 9th, Joe Girardi got canned, and then they pulled a Spinal Tap and cranked it up to 11 under the guidance of interim manager Rob Thomson. They survived injury spells, playing without Bryce Harper and Jean Segura. Zack Wheeler had to miss some time. They came back down to Earth in September but did enough to stay afloat, and they clinched with a three-game win streak. You’ll take that any day of the week. We’ve waited more than a decade for this, so let’s try to enjoy it. There’s plenty of time to bitch and complain about “backing in” to the postseason if you wanna have that stance, but Negadelphia feels unwarranted after snapping the longest playoff drought in baseball:

Remember that the top two teams get byes under this new format, with the 4 playing the 5 and the 3 playing the 6 in a best-of-three series hosted entirely by the higher seed. That would mean the Phillies go to St. Louis and the Padres go to Queens to play the Mutts (as of right now). Braves and Dodgers with the time off.

There’s nothing better than playoff baseball, and it’s going to be great to see the Phillies playing it again. Let’s fucking go: