Philadelphia Phillies Have Owned Division Rival Since Embarrassing Tweet

The Philadelphia Phillies have made the Washington Nationals eat their words.

Aug 18, 2024; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Trea Turner (7) celebrates his home run with third base Alec Bohm (28). / Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

Many social media posts have not aged well, but this one is particularly bad.

Back in August 2020, the Philadelphia Phillies were mired in mediocrity, heading towards a losing record and their ninth straight season without a playoff appearance. Meanwhile, the Washington Nationals were still flying high after winning their first World Series in franchise history the previous fall.

Prior to the start of a two-game series between the division rivals in late August, both clubs were scuffling. The Phillies were last in the NL East at 10-14, while the Nationals were fourth at 11-15.

Still, that didn't stop Washington from bragging about its recent superiority over Philadelphia on X (formerly Twitter). Oops.

The Phillies are now 51-19 since this.

It could truly be the worst tweet of all time. https://t.co/snmZ97XPPe

— Life of a Philly Fan (@PhillyFanLife) August 18, 2024

That post immediately preceded a turning point in the rivalry. The Phillies took 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, a sign of things to come.

In December 2020, the Phillies hired the legendary Dave Dombrowski as their first president of baseball operations, and he instantly began turning things around. Philadelphia got back on track in 2021, finishing second in the NL East behind the World Series champion Atlanta Braves.

Meanwhile, Washington dismantled its championship core in 2021, trading away Max Scherzer, Trea Turner and Kyle Schwarber that summer. The Nationals crashed 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 plummeted to 55-107. On the other hand, Philadelphia got hot in October and returned to the World Series for the first time since 2009. Once again, the Phillies dominated the rivalry, going 16-3 with a plus-58 run differential.

The Nationals improved to 71-91 in 2023 but remained in last place. 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 Washington by 43 runs.

In 2024, the story hasn't changed. Philadelphia has the best record in baseball and is on track to win the NL East for the first time since 2011. The Nationals have improved to fourth place ahead of the hapless Miami Marlins but will likely finish with a losing record and miss the playoffs again. After taking three of four from Washington over the weekend (despite Rob Thomson's questionable decision-making), 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 the Nationals since the latter's ill-advised tweet, outscoring them 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.

How hard is beating Philadelphia? To quote Ron Washington from that great scene in Moneyball, "It's incredibly hard."