Is This Washington Nationals Tweet the Worst in MLB History?
Many social media posts have not aged well, but one from the Washington Nationals stands out in particular.
Back in August 2020, the Nationals were still riding high off their World Series victory the previous fall. Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Phillies were mired in an extended drought, heading towards a losing record and their ninth straight season without a playoff berth.
Prior to the start of a two-game series between the division rivals in late August, the Phillies were 10-14 and in last place in the NL East. Washington wasn't much better, sitting in fourth place at 11-15.
That didn't stop the Nationals from bragging about their recent superiority over Philadelphia on X (formerly Twitter).
Unfortunately for Washington, that post has aged horrendously over the last four years, as the rivalry immediately flipped.
The Phillies are now 51-19 since this.
— Life of a Philly Fan (@PhillyFanLife) August 18, 2024
It could truly be the worst tweet of all time. https://t.co/snmZ97XPPe
The Phillies swept both games in D.C., then swept a four-game series when they met again the following week. Philadelphia went 7-3 with a plus-18 run differential against the Nationals that year as both teams missed the playoffs.
In December 2020, the Phillies hired Dave Dombrowski as their first-ever president of baseball operations, and he quickly began turning things around. Philadelphia had a winning record and finished second in the NL East behind the Atlanta Braves in 2021.
Meanwhile, Washington blew up its championship core in 2021, trading away Max Scherzer, Trea Turner and Kyle Schwarber that summer. The Nationals plummeted to last place and struggled against the Phillies, going 6-13 with a minus-27 run differential.
Both teams continued to trend in opposite directions in 2022.
Washington dealt superstar Juan Soto to the San Diego Padres and bottomed out at 55-107.
Philadelphia, on the other hand, got hot in October and won its first National League pennant since 2009. Once again, the Phillies dominated the rivalry, going 16-3 with a plus-58 run differential.
Washington improved to 71-91 in 2023, but finished last in the division for the third year in a row. Philadelphia made another deep playoff run before losing Game 7 of the NLCS to the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Phillies won the season series 7-6, outscoring the Nationals 93-50.
In 2024, the story is still the same.
Philadelphia has the best record in baseball and is on track to win the NL East for the first time since 2011. Washington has improved to fourth place but will likely finish with a losing record and miss the playoffs again. After taking three of four from the Nationals over the weekend, the Phillies are 8-2 with a plus-28 run differential in the season series, which still has three games remaining.
Add it all up, and Philadelphia is 51-20 against Washington since the latter's infamous tweet, outscoring the Nationals by a whopping 174 runs (2.5 per contest) during that time.
The Phillies have emerged as one of the best teams in baseball, while Washington has had to rebuild from scratch and still appears to be several years away from contending.
It turns out that beating Philadelphia is pretty hard after all, and it's not getting any easier.
TYLER MAHER