Crossing Broad
When the Phillies lost to the Dodgers in the National League Division Series, there was some grumbling among the locals that LA would go on to win it all.
Sure enough, that’s exactly what happened, though it wasn’t as easy as we initially thought. After sweeping the Brewers with no issues whatsoever, they needed extra innings in Game 7 to dispatch the Blue Jays and win their second World Series in a row, finishing with 13 wins and 4 losses in the postseason. Toronto was responsible for three of those losses and the Phillies one, so we were sadly denied the pitiful “Phils vs. Dodgers was the real World Series” narrative.
There’s this existing thought that Philadelphia teams oftentimes lose in the playoffs to opponents that go on to win it all. Or, a general idea that our teams have faced some real killers in the past. Case in point, you look at how often the Flyers have reached the mountaintop, only to be undone by guys like Wayne Gretzky, Sergei Fedorov, and Patrick Kane. Those were some elite Flyers teams, defeated only by generational talent on the other side.
As an exercise in storyline examination, we asked artificial intelligence to look up how many times a Philadelphia team has lost in the playoffs to a squad that went on to win it all. The A.I. failed miserably, and seemed to confuse Finals results with early playoff round results. It screwed up years and seasons, though it did note that the four majors + Philly Union are 8-20 in championship games going back to the start of the Super Bowl era, which was somewhat helpful, but I went through each team individually and tallied the rest of the results the old-fashioned way.
The Phils are 2-6 all-time in the World Series. Additionally, they lost to the following World Series winners in previous playoff rounds:
In 1977 and 1978, the Phillies lost to the Dodgers in the NLCS, but LA was dispatched by the Yankees in the Fall Classic on both occasions. They lost to the Rockies in the 2007 NLDS, who got swept by the Red Sox in the World Series.
The one that’s most annoying remains 2023 against the Diamondbacks, who went on to lose 4-1 to the Rangers in the World Series.
The Birds are 2-3 in title games during the Super Bowl era. They won three championships before the big game was created.
Going back to 1966, they’ve lost in the playoffs to the following teams that went on to lift the Lombardi Trophy:
