Back in the early part of the previous decade, before they reeled off five straight division championships, the Phillies immediately followed one great winning streak with a losing streak of equal strength, giving away hard-fought gains in the standings in the process.
While such ebbs and flows are part of nearly every team’s season, the nagging frequency and recurrence by which those Phillies teams ran them off was not. They affected morale, enthusiasm and ultimately faith, and were as big a reason as any that Larry Bowa’s final stint as a manager ended just two seasons short of the Phillies' first division championship.