PHILADELPHIA -- Don Mattingly said it best before he even sat down at the podium.
"It feels like this should have some tequila in it," the Phillies interim manager joked as he grabbed a bottle of water.
That feeling could have been based entirely on Sunday's game alone -- one the Phillies battled to win 7-6 in 12 innings over the Blue Jays. It's also possible it applied to the weekend as a whole.
There was Friday's two-hour rain delay ahead of Chase Utley's Wall of Fame induction and an eventual one-run loss. There was Saturday's late-game collapse en route to an 11-inning loss. And then the Phillies nearly suffered the same fate on Sunday before Derek Hill saved the day -- and prevented the sweep -- with a walk-off knock in the 12th.
"A little Utley Philly toughness today," Mattingly said. " ... It's the kind of game that you're going to have to win. Every win is good."
That's certainly true for a Phillies team that finds itself locked in a tight National League Wild Card race. And with more than 60 former players packing Citizens Bank Park for Alumni Weekend -- including plenty from the 1980 and 2008 World Series champion teams -- there were reminders all over the ballpark of where exactly this year's team is trying to get to.
On the field, though, there were just as many reminders of the potential pitfalls along the way.
Even on a day when Jesús Luzardo dominated for much of the afternoon and Kyle Schwarber snapped out of his home run drought with a pair of blasts, the win did not come easy for the Phillies.
The bullpen squandered a multi-run lead in the eighth inning for the second time in as many days. And even when the bullpen did its job in extra innings, the offense missed out on a number of opportunities before Hill finally came through in the 12th.
“I think we always need a win like this,” Hill said. “I think it galvanizes the team. These gritty wins go a long way at the end.”
The Phillies first need to get to the end, though.
They acquired two relievers at the Trade Deadline -- lefty Brooks Raley and righty Caleb Kilian -- in an attempt to shore up the gap between their strong rotation and their shutdown closer.
It was more of a depth move than a major splash.
In other words, the Phillies still need the likes of Jonathan Bowlan, Orion Kerkering and José Alvarado to take down high-leverage innings.
On Saturday, Alvarado let a two-run lead slip away in the eighth. On Sunday, Kerkering did the same with a three-run lead in the eighth.
"Part of this -- and I don't want to make excuses -- but we've been leaning on these guys," Mattingly said. "They're pitching on short rest, not truly [running on] full tanks out there. It's where we're at. It's what you do. We've got to get over it."
Mattingly's not wrong.
Kerkering's velocity was down across the board on Sunday. It was his fourth appearance in the past five days -- and his sixth in the past eight. Bowlan was unavailable after pitching three of the past four. Alvarado had done the same.
Jhoan Duran, also pitching for the fourth time in five days, tossed a clean ninth inning.
"It's everybody out there right now," Mattingly said. "At some point, hopefully, we're going to be able to reset."
Sunday was a chance to do exactly that.
Luzardo struck out 12 over seven innings of two-run ball and turned over a three-run lead to the ’pen in the eighth. Not only did the Phillies not hold that lead, but with their inability to push across the automatic runner in either the 10th or the 11th, they ultimately used five relievers.
The last one out of the ’pen was Kilian, who appeared to tweak something in his side on his final pitch.
“They're going to do some imaging tomorrow,” Mattingly said. “It didn't look good.”
But it wasn’t all bad.
Not only did they get the all-important victory, but Schwarber hit a pair of homers to snap his 17-game drought -- tied for his longest as a Phillie and the third-longest of his career overall.
“In October … it's just trying to find a way to win a game at the end of the day,” Schwarber said. “And I feel like that was kind of an example today, right? They fought us really well this whole series, but to be able to keep fighting and find a way to finally get that job done -- that's what it's about.”