Braves–Phillies rivalry

The Braves–Phillies rivalry is a rivalry between the Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies. Both clubs are members of Major League Baseball's National League (NL) East division. The rivalry started prior to the teams becoming division mates, as the Phillies upset the Braves in the 1993 NL Championship Series, a year before the Braves moved to the NL East. While the Braves have often gotten the best of the Phillies in the regular season, the Phillies have flipped the script in the postseason, going 3-0 against the Braves (1993, 2022, and 2023), creating a rivalry where both fanbases own bragging rights.

Throughout their rivalry since 1994, both franchises have dominated the National League East standings. The Braves won the division from 1995 to 2005, the Phillies won five straight from 2007 to 2011, and the Braves would then win six straight from 2018 to 2023. Currently, the Phillies have won consecutive NL East titles in 2023-2024.

Background

The Braves were founded in Boston in 1871 and joined the National League in 1876. Between 1871 and 1940, the Boston baseball team changed their name a total of eight times until settling with the name “Braves” before the 1941 season. This was in comparison to the Philadelphia Phillies, who are the oldest, continuous, one-name, one-city franchise in American professional sports (1889-present).

Despite being the "other" team in Boston compared to the more popular Red Sox, the Braves were in Boston for 81 years (1952-1871). Before the 1953 season, the Braves would settle into their new home in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which they would immediately have more success. In 1953, the Braves started strong in their new city with a 92-62 record, third best in the major leagues. In 1954, a young 20-year old outfielder named Henry Aaron (more affectionately known as “Hank”) made his debut on April 3, 1954 and would eventually become the all-time home run leader 20 years later. In 1957, Aaron and Eddie Matthews anchored a top offense and pitchers Warren Spahn, Lew Burdette, and Bob Buhl led the rotation to the Braves second championship and first in Milwaukee.

The Milwaukee Braves would handily defeat the Phillies from 1954 to 1964, losing only one season series against the Phillies. During this time period, the Phillies were in a rebuild as aging stars like Richie Ashburn, Del Ennis and all of the core pieces from the 1950 team were all coming to the end of their careers. Despite never having a losing season in Milwaukee, the Braves found themselves on the move again, this time to Atlanta in 1966.

In Atlanta, team success would be hard to come by for the Braves in their nascent years. Major League Baseball would go through expansion and would realign both the American League and National League into an East and West division. Despite being in Atlanta, the Braves were placed in the West division while the Phillies were in the East. The Braves actually made a surprise postseason appearance in 1969 and won the first ever National League West, but were quickly dispatched by the New York Mets. Afterwards, the Braves quickly fell to the bottom of the division and would not win the National League West until 1982.

Meanwhile, the Phillies would come out of the basement of the National League in the mid 1970s after a historic collapse 1964. Known as the "Phold of Phillies", the '64 Phillies lost a -game lead with 12 games left in the season to the St. Louis Cardinals atop of the NL standings. Throughout their time as franchise, the Phillies were known to come up short of a championship, losing World Series in their only two appearances in 1915 and 1950 (and only winning one game out of the eight World Series games). With the Aaron Era coming to an end (1976 would be Aaron’s final season), the Phillies, led by one of the marquee sluggers of his generation Mike Schmidt, would win their first ever National League East in 1976. However, this would start a string of postseason heartbreak for the Phillies, as they were defeated in three consecutive National League Championship Series by the Reds (1976) and Dodgers (1977, 1978).

The Phillies entered the 1980 season as the only original National League team not to have won a World Series and ended the season as champions, winning their first World Series against the Kansas City Royals in six games. They made another World Series appearance in 1983, where they lost to the Baltimore Orioles in five games. In the West in 1983, the Braves would suffer their own collapse, although not as severe as the 1964 Phillies. The Braves were games atop of the NL West standings before they went in a tailspin and eventually lost the division to the Dodgers on the last weekend of the season. Until 1991, the Braves had not made a World Series in Atlanta, but the 1991 team, that was picked to finish near the bottom of the NL West standings, improbably won the division and the NL Championship Series against Pittsburgh to reach the World Series. In the Series, the Braves lost a classic to the Minnesota Twins in seven games. The returned to the World Series the following season, only to lose to the Toronto Blue Jays in six games.

1993 NL Championship Series

Similar to the 1991 Braves, the Phillies, led by outfielder Lenny Dykstra and pitcher Curt Schilling, had gone from worst-to-first, fending off a hard-charging Montreal Expos team in late September, to win the division title with a 97–65 record, and continue the Pennsylvania reign of NL East championships by the Phillies and the Pittsburgh Pirates, their in-state rivals during the early 1990s. The Braves, who had advanced to the World Series each of the past two seasons, won a classic division race over the 103–59 San Francisco Giants, finishing with a franchise-best 104–58 record. The heavily favored and playoff-seasoned Braves brought their legendary pitching rotation of Cy Young winner Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, and Steve Avery into the NLCS with them.

After Philadelphia edged Atlanta in an exciting Game 1 that went into extra innings, the Braves hammered the Phillies in the next two games to a take a 2–1 series lead. However, the Braves' bats suddenly fell silent and the Phillies rebounded by winning close contests in the final two games in Atlanta to send the series back to Veterans Stadium with Philadelphia on top three games to two. The Phillies took Game 6 by a score of 6–3, sending them to their first World Series appearance in ten years, where they lost to the Toronto Blue Jays in six games.

1994: First year as divisional rivals

Owners and the MLBPA agreed to realign by changing the divisional format starting in 1994, with the creation of a third division in each 14-team league. This in turn led to the creation of another round of postseason play, the Division Series and the addition of a wild card; meaning for the first time ever, a team did not have to win their division to qualify for the postseason. The Braves would end their 24-year stay in the National League West, move to the National League East, and form a divisional rivalry with the Phillies.

The Braves went 6-3 in the strike-shortened season against the Phillies in 1994.

2011: Braves wild card collapse

Between 1995 and 2005, the Braves won every National League East, which included a World Series in 1995 (the team's third World Series and first in Atlanta) and four other appearances in 1991, 1992, 1996, and 1999. By 2011, however, the Phillies were the NL's dominant team, having won a World Series in 2008 and appeared in another in 2009, and four straight NL East titles through the 2010 season.

In the pre-season, the young Braves, now managed by Fredi Gonzalez after the retirement of Bobby Cox, were predicted to be the Phillies biggest challenge, which proved to be correct. On July 18, 2011, the Braves won at Coors Field against the Rockies to pull within two games back of the division-leading Phillies, with a 57-39 record. This turned out to be the closest the Braves would get to the Phillies.

Nevertheless, the Braves were still in control of the top wild card spot and seen as a shoe-in to qualify for their first postseason since 2005. When the calendar flipped to September in 2011, they still had a 8½-game lead over the St. Louis Cardinals for the National League wild card. But the Braves, whose record was 81-55 after they beat the Washington Nationals on September 1, lost 15 of their next 23 games through September 25 as Tommy Hanson and All-Star pitcher Jair Jurrjens were sidelined by injuries and the hitting went into a complete slump, averaging just over three runs a game in September. Meanwhile, the Cardinals went 16-7 over the same period, and the Braves’ lead shrank to one game on September 25. A once locked-up playoff spot was in jeopardy for Atlanta as they had to face the league-best Philadelphia Phillies (101-60) for their final season series, while St. Louis was pitted against the league-worst Houston Astros (56-105). The Braves had been in this situation on the final day of the 2010 season, when they were tied for the wild card with the San Diego Padres. They beat the Phillies on the last day after losing the first two games of the series to clinch the wild card.

Atlanta lost the first two games to Philadelphia of their three game set, while St. Louis split with Houston, which meant all the Braves had to do was win their last game and they would be in the playoffs. However, the Braves blew the last game of the year to a Phillies team just looking to play spoiler. Craig Kimbrel, the NL saves leader, blew a 3-2 ninth inning lead. The game was scoreless until a Hunter Pence groundball single gave the Phillies the lead and eventually win in 13 innings. The Cardinals had defeated the Astros an hour earlier, so the Braves were eliminated from contention.

Braves catcher Brian McCann said of the collapse: “This is tough. This is the worst feelings I’ve ever had coming off a baseball field."

2022 NL Division Series

The Braves entered the 2022 season looking to repeat as champions, after winning the World Series in 2021 for the first time since 1995. Many thought that their 2022 team was better than the championship 2021 team, despite losing star first baseman Freddie Freeman to free-agency. The Braves started the season slowly, but picked things up as the spring became summer, chasing down the New York Mets and winning the NL East on the second to last day of the season. It was Atlanta's fifth straight NL East division title and also won 100+ games (101) for the first time since 2003.

Philadelphia was looking to qualify for a postseason spot in 2022 for the first time since 2011. They started the season even worse than the Braves, having to eventually fire their manager Joe Girardi after a 22–29 start to the season. They took off almost immediately after Girardi's firing, although they were never a threat in the NL East to the Braves or Mets. They still qualified for the postseason as the sixth and final seed. In the National League Wild Card Series, they swept the National League Central division winner St. Louis Cardinals to set the showdown for the second Braves versus Phillies postseason series.

The Braves came into the series as heavy favorites, but the Phillies, riding the momentum off of beating the Cardinals, upset the Braves in Game 1. The Braves evened the series after Kyle Wright out-dueled Phillies' ace Zack Wheeler. With the series now at Citizen Bank Park, the Phillies were able to ride an excellent home-field advantage to two blowout wins, taking the series, 3-1.

2023 NL Division Series

The Phillies entered 2023 as defending National League pennant champions. They had a similar season to their 2022 team, getting off to a slow start before heating up later in the year. They were unable to win the division, thus qualifying for a wild card with a 90-72 record. The Phillies easily dispatched the Marlins in the Wild Card Series to advance to their second straight NLDS.

The Braves were looking to avenge their defeat at the hands' of the Phillies. The 2023 Braves were definitively better than their 2022 team, who won 101 games, and their 2021 championship team. The team also set the record for highest team slugging percentage in a season at .501, breaking the old record of .495 set by the 2019 Houston Astros. The Braves ended the season with 104 wins, the highest number of wins for the franchise since 1998. Because of these strong offensive numbers, the 2023 Braves are often regarded as one of the greatest baseball offenses of all time.

However, the Braves historic offense would once again have trouble scoring runs against Phillies' pitching. The Phillies stole Game 1, while the Braves won a one-run game after knocking around the Phillies bullpen to win Game 2, 5-4. Game 3 was like a déjà vu of Game 3 from the prior year, as the Phillies blew out the Braves, 10-2, to take control of the series. Ranger Suárez out-dueled Braves' ace Spencer Strider to win their third series against Atlanta in the playoffs. In the NLDS, the Braves actually fared worse than 2022, being out-scored by 12 runs and out-hit 36-23 in the four game series.

See also

• Major League Baseball rivalries
• National League East