The Best Philadelphia Phillies Seasons and Every October Run

By 4Baseball Staff · November 5, 2026 · 11 min read

Every Phillies pennant, title and postseason series through 2025, from the 1915 loss to the 1980 and 2008 championships, the 1964 collapse and the 2022 to 2025 run, with the records behind each.

The Philadelphia Phillies have been playing since 1883, which makes them one of the oldest clubs in the sport, and for most of that history they did not win. Through the 2025 season their all-time record is 10,303-11,392, a winning percentage of .475, and the franchise's own record book lists only eight pennants and two World Series titles in 143 seasons. Then came the years since 2007, when the club has made the playoffs nine times in 19 seasons and won more postseason series than in all the years before 2007 combined.

This article follows the club's best regular seasons and every postseason series in the historical record, organized by era. It separates the teams with the best records from the teams that went furthest, because in Philadelphia those lists only partly overlap. The best regular season in club history, 102-60 in 2011, ended in the division series. The 1980 champions won 91 games.

Everything here comes from the franchise record through 2025. Where the record says nothing about how a game or a series was decided, this article says nothing either, with a few widely documented events noted as such.

The franchise in one table

The club has won pennants in 1915, 1950, 1980, 1983, 1993, 2008, 2009 and 2022, and World Series titles in 1980 and 2008. It has won division titles in 1976, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1983, 1993, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2024 and 2025, and wild-card berths in 2022 and 2023.

That is 18 postseason seasons and 31 series. The club won 15 of those 31 series and lost 16, and every win came in two clusters: four between 1980 and 1993, and eleven between 2008 and 2023.

1883 to 1949: the long wait

The franchise began as the Quakers in 1883, became the Phillies in 1890, and spent 1943 and 1944 as the Blue Jays. It had a few good teams in the 1880s and 1890s, among them the 94-58 club of 1899 that finished third, but the World Series did not begin until 1903. The best player of the era, Ed Delahanty, is still second in club history in runs batted in (1,288) and runs (1,368), with 2,214 hits for the club from 1888 to 1901.

The 1915 team was the first pennant winner. It finished 90-62 and lost the World Series to Boston, four games to one. The club then did not win another pennant for 35 years. The dismal end of that stretch is the one most remembered: the 1928, 1939, 1941, 1942 and 1945 teams each lost more than 100 games, and the 1942 club went 42-109 and the 1941 club 43-111. For most of that time they played at the Baker Bowl, whose best season attendance was 515,365.

Chuck Klein, who won the 1932 Most Valuable Player Award, is the top player of that era. He hit 243 home runs with the club from 1928 to 1944, a total that places him fifth in franchise history, and he played his home games in the Baker Bowl, famous for a short right field. The park matters when reading his numbers, as it does for any hitter of that era.

1950: the Whiz Kids

The 1950 Phillies are the other name of that long era, and the club's only pennant between 1915 and 1980. They finished 91-63 and won the National League pennant on the last day of the season, with Dick Sisler's home run in the tenth inning against Brooklyn. That finish is among the best-documented in baseball history: a September lead had shrunk until the last game of the season decided the pennant, and it took extra innings at Ebbets Field to settle it.

The pitching staff was strong and young. Robin Roberts won 234 games for the club in all, 1948 to 1961, and the manager was Eddie Sawyer, who went 390-423 for the Phillies in 817 games between 1948 and 1960. The MVP that year was unusual too: the National League winner was a relief pitcher, Jim Konstanty.

The World Series was a sweep, and the Phillies were on the wrong side. The Yankees won four games to none. It would be 30 years before another Phillies team reached a World Series.

1964: the collapse

Before the great teams of the 1970s, there is the season that defines the club's older fans' memories: 1964. The Phillies finished 92-70, tied with Cincinnati for second place, one game behind the St. Louis Cardinals' 93-69. The Cardinals won the pennant and the World Series.

What happened is well documented. The Phillies led the National League by six and a half games with twelve to play, then lost ten games in a row, and finished a game out. Gene Mauch managed 1,332 games for the club from 1960 to 1968 with a 646-684 record, and 1964 is the season he is most associated with in Philadelphia. The Rookie of the Year that season was a Phillie, Dick Allen.

The 1964 season is the best argument for a statement that applies across the franchise's history: the regular season produced a lot of very good Phillies teams that never played in October, because only the pennant winner advanced before 1969. The 1964 team won 92 games. A team that wins 92 games today is almost always a playoff team. In 1964 it won no postseason games.

1976 to 1983: the Schmidt years

The Phillies of the 1970s were the first great club of the divisional era. Mike Schmidt is the franchise's career home run leader with 548, its runs batted in leader with 1,595 and its runs scored leader with 1,506. He won three Most Valuable Player Awards, in 1980, 1981 and 1986. Steve Carlton, the club's career leader in wins (241) and strikeouts (3,031) from 1972 to 1986, won four Cy Young Awards with the club, in 1972, 1977, 1980 and 1982. Danny Ozark managed the teams of the middle seventies and went 594-510 over 1,105 games from 1973 to 1979.

The 1976 club went 101-61 and the 1977 club went 101-61 again. The 1978 club won 90 games. Each won the division and each lost the NLCS: 3-0 to Cincinnati in 1976, 3-1 to the Dodgers in 1977, 3-1 to the Dodgers in 1978. Three series and nine losses is the sort of record that produces a reputation as a team that cannot win in October. The reputation rests on three short series against two strong opponents, and nothing more specific than that. In 1977 and 1978 the Phillies ran into a Dodgers club that won the pennant both years.

1980: the first championship

The break came in 1980. The Phillies finished 91-71, won the division, and met Houston in the NLCS. The series went the full five games and the Phillies won, 3-2. In the World Series they played the Kansas City Royals and won, 4-2. It was the first World Series title in club history, in the franchise's 98th season.

Schmidt was named the NL's Most Valuable Player and also the World Series' most valuable player, and Carlton won his third Cy Young. Tug McGraw, the relief pitcher who closed the Series, has 94 career saves with the club, a total that sits sixth on the franchise's list of saves leaders. The Phillies clinched it at home.

The strike-shortened 1981 season, split into two halves, put the Phillies into a special extra round. They finished 59-48 overall, third by the standings, but they won the first-half title and met Montreal in a division series. They lost, 3-2.

1983 and 1993: two more pennants, two more losses

The 1983 Phillies went 90-72, won the division, beat the Dodgers 3-1 in the NLCS and lost the World Series to Baltimore, four games to one. John Denny won the Cy Young Award that year. It is a pattern in the record: the clubs that reached the Series in 1950, 1983 and 1993 each lost it, in 4-0, 4-1 and 4-2.

The 1993 team is the one many fans remember best. It had finished last in the NL East the year before, at 70-92, and then won 97 games and the division. It beat Atlanta 4-2 in the NLCS and met Toronto in the World Series, where it lost 4-2. Joe Carter's home run won Game 6 for the Blue Jays and ended the Series, which made it the second World Series to end on a home run, after Bill Mazeroski's for Pittsburgh in 1960. The pitcher who gave it up was Mitch Williams, the Phillies closer, who had 102 saves in three seasons with the club. Jim Fregosi, who went 431-463 as the manager from 1991 to 1996, was in the dugout.

2007 to 2011: the peak

The finest sustained stretch in franchise history started on the last day of the 2007 regular season, when the Phillies overtook the Mets to win the division. They then lost the division series to Colorado, three games to none. Jimmy Rollins, the shortstop who is the franchise's career hits leader with 2,306 from 2000 to 2014, won the MVP that year.

The 2008 team is the other champion. It went 92-70, won the division, and then beat Milwaukee 3-1, the Dodgers 4-1 and Tampa Bay 4-1 in the World Series. Charlie Manuel, who managed more games than any other Phillies manager, 1,414 from 2005 to 2013, and finished 780-634, was in the dugout. Brad Lidge, the closer, is fifth on the franchise saves list with 100, and he did not blow a save that year in the regular season or the postseason, by widely reported count. The home ballpark was Citizens Bank Park, and the club's ballpark guide, linked below, covers it in detail.

Then came three seasons that produced 93, 97 and 102 wins. The 2009 club won 93 games, beat Colorado 3-1 and the Dodgers 4-1, and lost the World Series to the Yankees, 4-2. The 2010 club won 97 games, swept Cincinnati 3-0 in a division series in which Roy Halladay threw a no-hitter in Game 1, and then lost the NLCS to San Francisco, 4-2. Halladay, who spent four seasons with the club and won the Cy Young Award in 2010, is also in the Hall of Fame.

And the 2011 club went 102-60, the best record in franchise history. It lost the division series to St. Louis in five games, the final one a 1-0 game that is widely remembered, and it went home. Attendance that year at Citizens Bank Park was 3,680,718, the highest in club history. The 2011 team is the clearest example in the table of the difference between the best team and the team that wins.

2012 to 2021: the lean years

After 2011 the franchise went a decade without a postseason game. The 2012 team went 81-81 and finished third. The next several years fall away from the table: no postseason berth in any season from 2012 through 2021, ten straight seasons without October. The 2021 team went 82-80 and finished second, and Bryce Harper won the National League MVP award that year.

2022 to 2025: wild-card pennant, then two division titles

The 2022 team went 87-75, finished third in the East, and qualified as a wild card. It beat St. Louis 2-0 in the wild-card round, Atlanta 3-1 in the division series and San Diego 4-1 in the NLCS. It then lost the World Series to Houston, four games to two. It was the club's eighth pennant. Rob Thomson had taken over as manager during the season. The club's run through the National League as the last of the six playoff seeds showed again that the short series is closer to a lottery than the 162-game season.

The 2023 team won 90 games and qualified again, beat Miami 2-0 in the wild-card round and Atlanta 3-1 in the division series, and then lost the NLCS to Arizona in seven games, 4-3. It is the only time in the sheet that the club lost a series in seven games.

In 2024 the club went 95-67, won the division, and lost the division series to the Mets, 3-1. In 2025 it went 96-66, won the division again, and lost the division series to the Dodgers, 3-1. The 2024 and 2025 teams were the best regular-season Phillies clubs of the 2020s, and they did not win a round. That brings the club's division titles to 14 since 1976.

What the Phillies' October record shows

Add up the series in the sheet and a few facts stand out.

• The club has won two World Series and lost six: 1915, 1950, 1983, 1993, 2009 and 2022.
• It has won the NLCS in six different seasons: 1980, 1983, 1993, 2008, 2009 and 2022. Each of those teams then went to the World Series.
• Its best regular-season records, 102 wins in 2011 and 101 wins in 1976 and 1977, produced no pennant.
• The teams that won it all won 91 and 92 games, which says as much about the postseason as about the Phillies.

For a club that spent so many decades at the bottom of the standings, the record since 2007 stands out. In the 124 seasons before 2007, the Phillies reached the postseason nine times, counting the World Series years of 1915 and 1950. In the 19 seasons from 2007 through 2025 they have reached it nine times again, and played in the World Series in 2008, 2009 and 2022.

Common questions

How many World Series have the Phillies won? Two, in 1980 and 2008. They have lost the World Series six times.

What was the Phillies' best season by record? 2011, at 102-60. The next-best are 1976 and 1977, each 101-61.

Who is the greatest Phillie? The historical career leaders point to Mike Schmidt, who leads the franchise in home runs, runs batted in and runs scored, and to Steve Carlton, who leads in strikeouts with 3,031. The club's all-time greats are covered in a separate article, linked below.

What happened in 1964? The Phillies led the National League by six and a half games with twelve to play, lost ten in a row, and finished one game behind St. Louis, tied with Cincinnati for second.

Have the Phillies ever swept a series? Yes, several times: Cincinnati in the 2010 division series, and St. Louis in the 2022 wild-card round and Miami in 2023, both 2-0. They have also been swept, by Cincinnati in the 1976 NLCS, by the Yankees in the 1950 World Series and by Colorado in the 2007 division series.

Where to go next

The full franchise story is in the Phillies franchise history, and the players are profiled in the all-time greats article. The ballpark, from the Baker Bowl to the present, is in the Citizens Bank Park guide. Division rivals appear in the histories of the Atlanta Braves, the Miami Marlins and the New York Mets, and the history of the World Series places each of these results in context. For the team today, see the Phillies team page.