Think back to where you were ten years ago today. Maybe your life was better, maybe it was worse, but it’s almost guaranteed that as a Phillies fan, you had a much brighter outlook. The team was the five-time defending National League East champions, and although the 2011 playoffs didn’t go their way, they were fresh off a season in which they won a franchise record 102 games.
There were plenty of reasons to expect the dominance to continue. Three-fifths of their rotation consisted of aces Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, and Cole Hamels, and with the emergence of 2011 rookie sensation Vance Worley, their starting pitching was still expected to be the best in baseball.