Phillies Must Achieve Franchise First to Overcome Dodgers in NLDS

The Philadelphia Phillies are in trouble in the NLDS, but rallies from two games down have been known to happen.

Philadelphia Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto (10) hits a double against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the ninth inning during game two of the NLDS round for the 2025 MLB playoffs at Citizens Bank Park. | Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

This is not where the Philadelphia Phillies hoped to be after two home games in their National League Division Series with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Down 2-0 and in Los Angeles, the Phillies must flip a switch, starting with Wednesday's Game 3. Philadelphia must start a streak — three wins in four days — or this promising postseason ends with not only an exit, but a much earlier one than hoped.

It’s daunting. Winning streaks are hard to come by in October, especially when the energy feels negative. But teams have been known to turn a switch. In fact, 10 of them have, and they serve as a little inspiration for the Phillies to believe they can find a way.

Best-of-5 Series History

Eric Hartline-Imagn Images

Per Sarah Langs at MLB.com, there have been 90 best-of-five playoff series in MLB history in which a team has taken a 2-0 lead. The World Series has never been a five-game series. But iterations of the league championship series and league divisional series have over the years. The current format is a 2-2-1, with the higher seed serving as the home game for Games 1, 2 and 5.

Two of the other three series feature teams with 2-0 series leads — Milwaukee over the Chicago Cubs and Toronto over the New York Yankees. The Brewers and Blue Jays can rest a bit easy, as can the Dodgers, because the odds are with them. Of the 90 best-of-five series that saw a team start with a 2-0 lead, 80 of them went on to win the series.

That leaves 10. The Phillies have never executed this kind of rally, per an article at MLB.com. Eight of the 10 rallies have come in the division series round, with the first in 1981. That year there was a players’ strike, and the season was split. MLB opted to have the division winners in the first half and second half of the season play each other in a five-game division series. The Los Angeles Dodgers rallied from a 2-0 deficit to beat the Houston Astros.

That series was a 2-3 format, and the Dodgers had the final three games at home. The Phillies won’t have that advantage. Inspiration should come from a team in the same situation, one that surrendered the first two games at home but went on to win the next three.

The Yankees did it in the 2001 ALDS, losing two home games before heading to Oakland to beat the Athletics in the next two games and winning Game 5 at home. The Blue Jays did in 2015, losing the first two games of their ALDS series with the Texas Rangers in Toronto, only to win the next three games. Game 5 was the epic Jose Bautista ‘bat flip’ game.

The last two 0-2 rally of any kind was in 2017, when the Yankees lost Games 1 and 2 in Cleveland, won Games 3 and 4 in New York and then won Game 5 in Cleveland.

As a wise person said, ‘So you’re saying there’s a chance?” Yes, there is a chance. But the Philles have no margin for error.