For two teams that have existed in the same league for the entirety of Major League Baseball's "Division Era," the Philadelphia Phillies and Los Angeles Dodgers only seem to clash in bunches every few decades in the postseason. Now, as we stand at the precipice of the clubs' National League Division Series meeting, fans wonder if this will be a rare treat or the start of something that we'll see with regularity over the next few Octobers.
The Phils and Dodgers have somehow avoided each other in each of the last three postseasons despite each team being in the playoff field, so you knew this was coming eventually. Now the clubs will meet in October for the sixth time in their history and the first time since 2009.
Phillies and Dodgers have done this playoff dance before
The first two times the Phillies and Dodgers ever met in the playoffs, it came in successive seasons: 1977 and 1978. From a Phillies perspective, those appearances yielded only painful memories. In the best-of-five 1977 NLCS, the Phillies charged out of the gate with a Game 1 win, the club's first playoff win since 1915. Yes, 1915! But the excitement was short lived, as the Phillies were blown out in Game 2.
The scene shifted to Philadelphia for Games 3 and 4, and any hopes for a World Series berth essentially crumbled when the Phillies blew a 5-3 ninth-inning lead in the infamous "Black Friday" game. That 6-5 loss led to the club meekly bowing out in Game 4. The result was the same in 1978, only this time the Phillies dropped the first two at home, won Game 3 in LA, then lost Game 4 in extra innings. Regardless, it was another 3-1 series loss to the Dodgers, who actually went on to lose to the Yankees in the World Series in both years.
Both the Phillies and the Dodgers managed to nab a title in the years between their next playoff meeting, however, as they clashed once again in the 1983 NLCS. This time it was the Phils getting the better of things, with Gary "Sarge" Matthews leading the charge in a 3-1 Phillies series victory. Sweet redemption had come against LA, and it stayed that way for a quarter-century.
The NLCS had of course expanded to a best-of-seven affair by the time the teams next met in the playoffs during the now-legendary 2008 campaign. The Phillies shot out of the gate with a pair of home wins before being brought down to earth in Game 3.
Then, in Game 4, Matt Stairs earned his "forever beers" in the city of Philadelphia by cranking an eighth inning, two-out, two-run moonshot off Jonathan Broxton that is still orbiting over Dodger Stadium to give the Phillies a 7-5 lead in a crucial game. They won by that score, then finished the job two nights later in a comfortable 5-1 win to earn a 4-1 series victory.
The 2008 result has been the only time thus far where the winner of a Phillies-Dodgers playoff series has actually gone on to win that year's championship.
The clubs were right back at it in 2009 for an NLCS rematch. The league's writers must have liked the previous year's result, because they drew up something similar the next season. This time, the series began in LA, with the clubs splitting the two games. With the scene shifting to Philadelphia, the Phillies destroyed Dodgers starter Hiroki Kuroda (who had been the only Dodger pitcher to beat them in the previous year's NLCS) en route to an 11-0 win in Game 3.
Game 4 would prove to be a memorable one, with LA threatening to tie the series by taking a 4-3 lead into the bottom of the ninth. Broxton was looking to redeem himself after being tagged by Stairs the previous year, but he didn't do himself any favors when he walked Stairs and then hit Carlos Ruiz with a pitch.
With two on and two outs, Jimmy Rollins delivered perhaps the signature moment of his career, doubling into the gap to win the game and providing the team and its fans with a generational walk-off win. The Dodgers weren't coming back from that, and the Phillies blitzed them 10-4 two nights later to capture the series. That was 16 years ago, and now the rivalry will renew.
Whichever team emerges from the 2025 NLDS will be the odds-on favorite to win the World Series, even though there is still a long road ahead. For both the Phillies and Dodgers, this is shaping up to be the stuff that October dreams are made of.