Jimmy Rollins, Ryan Howard talk playoffs on 6-1-1 podcast

As the current group of Phillies looks to make a deep run into October, memories of the last group that brought a World Series title to Philadelphia are still plenty vivid — especially among the players who made it happen.

The 2008 World Series championship was the team’s first since 1980. But the road that title was paved in 2007, when the Phillies caught fire in September and rode the wave to capture a division title on the last day of the season. And it all started with a rather bold proclamation from star shortstop Jimmy Rollins, who made it clear that he thought the Phillies were the team to beat — even though, at the time, they hadn’t made a postseason appearance since 1993.

“We hadn’t won anything,” Ryan Howard, a key member of that Phillies squad, recalls in the latest episode of the 6-1-1 Podcast with co-host Rollins, the 2007 NL MVP. “We were nowhere to close to really winning the division. Like, at best we were trying to get a Wild Card spot.”

But once Rollins made his declaration, the team felt the need to rally around it.

“When you said it, it was like, ‘Well, why can’t we be the team to beat?'” Howard said. “I was like, ‘We can’t leave him out here on this island by himself. We’ve got to go out with him and have his back,’ which is what we did.”

The ’07 Phillies spent a total of four days in first place, but those four days happened to be the most important days of the season. Philadelphia trailed the Mets for the division lead by seven games in mid-September. But the Phillies’ hot streak, combined with a Mets meltdown, brought them even heading into the season’s final weekend. They remained tied on the final day of the regular season.

As the Phillies prepared to take the field that day against the Nationals, the Mets were already losing handily to a motivated Marlins team, which only upped the energy in an always raucous Citizens Bank Park. It was something that could be felt even in the clubhouse.

“You could hear something happening outside,” Rollins said. “You could hear the energy. You could hear the crowd just stomping and screaming and yelling.”

The Phillies took that energy and parlayed it into an easy 6-1 win to take the NL East crown as the Mets fell to the Marlins, 8-1.

That was just the beginning of a memorable run of Phillies success.

Rollins and Howard also recalled a memory from Game 4 of the 2009 NLDS against the Rockies in which Howard was eager to hit in the ninth inning with the team trailing, 4-2. He was due up fifth that inning, but the team’s motto that season was “pass the baton,” which charged every player to find a way to reach base to keep the line moving and get runs on the board. Howard, in a move that was out of character for him, was pacing the dugout with a message for his teammates: Just get me to the plate.

With the Phillies up, 2-1, in the series, they wanted to squash any hope the Rockies had.

“I was just like, ‘Get me to the plate. We’re gonna win this game,'” Howard said.

The team complied, Howard stepped to the plate and, yada, yada, yada, the Phillies won the game and the series on their way to a second straight NL pennant.

“It was just one of those moments where I just got locked in and was just, like, ready for the moment,” Howard said.

The 6-1-1 Podcast is available on MLB.com, MLB.TV, all podcast platforms and YouTube.