The Philadelphia Phillies quest for a World Series championship ended shorter than expected. The Phillies made it to the World Series in 2022 and were one win away from two straight appearances in 2023, so the 2024 team had high expectations.
The Phillies finished with a 95-67 record which was the second-best in Major League Baseball behind only the 98-win Los Angeles Dodgers. They earned the No. 2 seed in the National League playoffs and a first-round bye.
LCS matchups make Phillies' early elimination even more embarrassing
This year’s postseason featured the Dodgers and the Phillies as the top two teams in the NL and the New York Yankees and the Cleveland Guardians as the top two teams in the American League. The Phillies were the only team that had a first-round bye not to move on to the Championship Series.
The Phillies’ early elimination by the No. 6 seed New York Mets is even more embarrassing after the other three teams with the bye were able to take care of business and move on. The Dodgers are taking on the New York Mets in the NLCS, while the Yankees are hosting the Guardians in the ALCS.
The Phillies ran into a red-hot Mets team in the NLDS. The Mets had a 40-27 record in the second half of the season and earned a playoff spot on the final day of the season. They took care of the Milwaukee Brewers in three games in the Wild Card Round and then the Phillies in four games in the Divisional Round.
There has been a lot of talk about whether the first-round bye benefits the top teams in the playoffs. The No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in each league haven’t had much success the previous two postseasons with the new playoff format. The lower-seeded teams that played in the Wild Card Round found success by playing every day and not having a week off like the teams with the bye.
The Phillies are a perfect example of benefiting from playing in the Wild Card Round and staying in routine the two postseasons before 2024. They made the playoffs as the No. 6 seed in 2022 and had a 9-2 postseason record through the NLCS before losing to the Houston Astros in the World Series. The Phillies made the playoffs as the No. 4 seed in 2023 and had a 5-1 postseason record through the NLDS before losing to the Arizona Diamondbacks in seven games in the NLCS.