McCaffery

the course. We’re going to be strong. We’ll trust that will create confidence over the long haul.”

Kapler didn’t want to lose himself in 20 random games in April, so he couldn’t make too much of what just happened in June, when the Phils won three of their last four games, four of their last five series, and two of three against Washington. From May 17 through June 30, the Phillies played 42 games, mostly against baseball’s cream, the Cardinals and Braves, the Blue Jays and Dodgers, the Giants, Cubs, Brewers, Rockies and Yankees. They won 12 of their last 19. The 10game string that ended Sunday with a 4-3, 13-inning victory over the Nationals was said to have the potential to destroy. Yet the Phillies won six. And when Andrew Knapp won the Sunday game with a home run, that was five of six series they’d won.

“It shows we’re here to stay,” Knapp said. “Obviously, there’s a lot of games left and we have to keep playing well. But we’re up there with a lot of those teams, and this was a huge series win for us, especially coming off the series win in Washington. I know they wanted to come here and sweep us. And for us to take three of four, it was cool.”

Though the Phillies were only 13-14 in June, it was a reasonable achievement, given their schedule. So when will they and their manager have to stop rationalizing anything they accomplish? In July? September? Dare they even utter the “O” month?

“First, I think it’s kind of interesting that we look at the ‘gauntlet’ as part of a month, right?” Kapler was saying the other day, “as if June is the beginning of the gauntlet and then the last day of June is the end of the gauntlet. I understand that, because that’s where all kind of the condensed, really good, powerful teams have been. But I don’t really see it as ‘getting through it.’ Every series presents a pretty significant challenge.”

No series, week, month or schedule-stretch can really define a baseball team. That can only be done by a season. But the Phillies already have played half of one, and are 4537 one game into the second, good for a spot between the Braves and Nationals near the top of the N.L. East. That, and the .600 baseball the Phils just played against the Nationals and Yanks, has to say something to a manager who will never be convinced of much until first there have been long, long stretches of results.

“Perhaps that we don’t tend to get winded,” Kapler said. “We don’t tend to get tired, mentally fatigued or anything like that. So it’s not like this has worn us down. The one thing I think is worth thinking through is our West Coast trip and how much that was a real punch in the face, and not just because of the games that we lost, but because of the travel and the schedule itself.”

The Nationals are not themselves this season. That’s not the Phillies’ problem. It is, though, an opportunity that they have not wasted. Though they have not been particularly dominating in any area, they have expertly run the bases. And their plate discipline, as Kapler promised, has been among baseball’s best, with Carlos Santana, Cesar Hernandez and Rhys Hoskins being among the top 12 in the major-leagues in walk ratio.

Sunday, the Phillies had just enough of everything to win, from crisp defensive plays to accurate calls from Kapler to bullpen domination to Knapp’s walk-off home run, the Phils’ first since 2016.

“I think we can build on it,” Kapler said. “We can consider it momentum. We can consider it a platform. And we can consider it a confidence-boost for our clubhouse in general.”

Afterward, that clubhouse was bumping with the usual light and smoke show and music.

In April, that seemed overboard.

In the second half of the season? Not so much.

“When a team like ours is clicking on all cylinders,” Jake Arrieta said, “we’re going to have a lot of fun.”

And never apologize. Contact Jack McCaffery @jmccaffery@21stcenturymedia.com; follow him on Twitter @ JackMcCaffery