PHILADELPHIA >> Kurt Suzuki will be the first to tell you not many people expected his Atlanta Braves to win the National League East and head to the postseason this year. That’s what makes their unexpected success so satisfying.

Coming off a 72-90 season in which they finished 25 games behind one of his old teams, the Washington Nationals, this just wasn’t supposed to happen.

“We knew we were better than all the critics said,” said the 34-year-old Suzuki, the pride of Maui, who’s split time behind the plate with fellow veteran catcher Tyler Flowers. “They were saying we’d finished fourth, we weren’t very good, we were a year away.

“But we believed in our capability as a team. We believed in ourselves. And now here we are, just a few days from the postseason.”

It will only be Suzuki’s second trip to the playoffs in his 12-year career. The other came back in 2012, when he was acquired by the Nationals from Oakland, where he’d spent his first six seasons.

That Nats team, though, lost in the first round to St. Louis, Suzuki going 4-for-17 (.235) with two RBIs. He’s looking forward to finally going back.

“This is what you play for,” said Suzuki, who hit .271 with 12 homers and 50 RBIs this season. “The opportunity to get to the postseason and a chance to get to the World Series.

“The six years I’ve waited is a long time, but it’s worth it. All the time I put in — all the time in the offseason, time away from family, grinding it out every day, all the long travel. To be able to have the chance to get to the World Series it’s all worthwhile.”

Without him the Braves say they might not even be in this position.

“He’s been big,” said veteran outfielder Nick Markakis, who played against the 2004 winner of the Johnny Bench Award as the nation’s top catcher for College World Series champ Cal State Fullerton for years before they became teammates last season. “He’s a hard worker who does his homework and communicates well with the pitching staff.

“Most of all he has a plan when he goes out there and doesn’t stray too far from it. He’s also one of the better teammates I’ve had. Just a great guy. A good baseball player. A great dad. Down to earth.

“It’s hard to find guys like him these days.”

Let alone find two of them playing the same position. Braves manager Brian Snitker seldom can mention Suzuki without putting the 32-year-old Flowers in the same sentence. Both concede it’s an unusual situation where they’ve flourished.

“It’s unique for baseball to have two guys essentially fighting for the same position,” explained Flowers, who’s played in 81 games to Suzuki’s 105 and has 293 at-bats to Suzuki’s 384. “But we both want what’s best for each other and the team.

“The majority of situations like that, guys will act like they like each other, but deep down one wants to play every day and so does the other. But it hasn’t really been that. Since Day 1 it’s been about helping each other to help this team.

“I think both of us have taken our egos out of it.”

Suzuki seconds that.

“You don’t see that very often,” the 5-foot-10, 210-pound Wailuku native agreed, following an extensive pregame workout Friday, even though he was not in the lineup. “But we’re in it for the same reason — to do whatever we can to help the team win.

“That’s how we roll. He has stuff he does well. I have stuff I do well and we try to help each other.”

Their pitchers certainly appreciate it.

“He’s one of those guys who’ve been around a long time and obviously knows what he’s doing,” said 27-year-old veteran right-hander Julio Teheran. “You don’t have to worry, ‘Is he going to call the right pitch?’

“Whenever he comes out to say something I listen.”

When you meet him, Kurt Suzuki looks like a quiet, unassuming guy. Once he gets in that crouch behind the plate, though, that all changes.

“He’s the nicest guy in the world until the umpire says ‘Play ball,’” said his manager, Snitker. “Then he’s on fire.

“He’s as competitive a guy as I’ve ever been around and done just a really, really good job for us.”

So just where does that fire come from?

“I don’t know,” said Suzuki, a career .258 hitter with 114 home runs and 619 RBIs with Oakland (five full seasons and parts of two others), Washington (one season), Minnesota (three) and the last two in Atlanta. “It’s kind of my thing that I hate to lose.

“So you go out there and do everything you can to win. I don’t know how else to play.”

At the same time he knows there’s a lot more to life than baseball. The Kurt Suzuki Family Foundation, founded by Suzuki and his wife, Renee, is recognition of that.

“My wife and I have our own foundation,” said Suzuki, who helped with relief efforts following the volcanic eruption on the Big Island back in May. “We try to give back whenever we can.

“We’re such a small state. It didn’t affect us (on Maui), but you always know someone from somewhere. You never want to see that that type of destruction — anywhere.

“So you do stuff. But the foundation is more geared toward better lifestyles, healthy choices. The main thing we focus on is pediatric cancer.”

Apart from that, Renee and their four kids, the main thing Suzuki’s focusing on these days is preparing for Thursday, when the Braves meet the host Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLDS.

That day also happens to be his 35th birthday, the first time he has a major league game on his special day.

“Obviously the stakes are higher. The atmosphere’s a little crazier. But you’ve just got to go out and play. You can’t say it’s any other game, though you try to treat it that way. Try to keep all the distractions, all the pressure away.

“There’s going to be some adrenaline, some tense situations. But you’ve just got to go out and enjoy the games.”

For someone watching back in Hawaii, wondering whether he might be a future Suzuki or Shane Victorino or Kolten Wong, Suzuki doesn’t see himself as anything special.

“People recognize you, because you’re on TV back in Hawaii,” said Suzuki, who is in the final year of his contract and won’t make any decision on his future “until after we win the World Series.

“But I don’t consider myself a hero. I’m not saving lives or anything like that. I’m just a baseball player.”