The Mets-Phillies rivalry's best, most notable games

The New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies have something of a tense relationship, boasting a mutual history that is full of historic performances and long-standing grievances. (We are talking about New York and Philly sports, after all.) This rivalry, one of baseball's most heated, has just about seen it all, with one exception: They had never met in the postseason.

That's about to change. With their NL Wild Card Series victory over the Brewers, the Mets are officially Division Series-bound, and this year, that means they're headed to Philly.

If you’re looking to brush up on the background between these two teams before the 2024 NLDS kicks off on Saturday, you’re in the right place. Here are nine of the most notable Mets-Phillies games, put (somewhat) briefly.

Jun. 9, 2024: London Series ends on wild double play
Mets 6, Phillies 5

MLB's London Series is played on a converted soccer pitch. Translation: As a baseball field, it's a bandbox and it plays like one. Needless to say, that's not the kind of ballpark you'd want to be in while hanging onto a one-run lead with the bases juiced. but that was where the Mets found themselves in the final game of the 2024 London Series, and it only appeared to be getting worse when the Phillies' Nick Castellanos hit a squibber in front of home plate, almost perfectly designed to cause just enough infield chaos to push the tying run across. Instead, Mets catcher Luis Torrens, who not two weeks earlier was in Triple-A with the Yankees, turned a wild, game-saving double play, the first game-ending 2-3 ground-ball double play in recorded AL/NL history. Just another example of the very normal things that transpire in Mets-Phillies games.

Aug. 16, 2018: Mets’ highest-scoring game
Mets 24, Phillies 4

The highest-scoring game in Mets history came against the Phillies, although it started out, it must be said, in pretty normal fashion. It was a 5-4 game through the first four innings before the Mets unloaded a 10-run onslaught in the fifth. It was, as you might expect, an ugly night for the Phillies overall, who committed four errors; of the 24 runs the Mets scored on the night, 11 were unearned. Oh, and in what’s become a theme, this nightmarish game was also the first of a doubleheader, meaning the Phillies had to shake this one off in a hurry. (They did so successfully, at least, winning the nightcap, 9-6.)

Sept. 14, 2007: Phillies usher in Mets collapse
Phillies 3, Mets 2 (10)

If you’ve so much as passed a Mets fan on the street, there’s a chance you’ve heard this one already, and with good reason. The 2007 Mets had a seven-game lead over the Phillies in the NL East with 17 games to play. For all intents and purposes, their ticket to the postseason was punched by the time of their final meeting against the Phillies. In the series opener, the Phillies took home a pretty routine 3-2 victory in 10 innings, kicking off one of the most precipitous collapses in MLB history, as the Mets would end up going 5-12 over their final 17 games of the season while the Phillies went 13-4 -- precisely what had to happen for the Mets to lose the NL East outright, no more and no less. To make matters worse in New York, the Phillies’ unexpected 2007 NL East title was the first of five in a row, while the Mets wouldn’t make it back to the postseason until 2015.

Oct. 6, 1991: Cone ties franchise record
Mets 7, Phillies 0

What was a meaningless game on the last day of the 1991 season -- both teams came in with almost identical records and had long since fallen out of contention -- is actually still iconic. In his final start of the year, a three-hit shutout, Cone tied the Mets’ single-game franchise record, held by Hall of Famer and Mets legend Tom Seaver since 1970, by striking out 19 batters (the all-time AL/NL record in a nine-inning game is 20). And, even with the talent the Mets have brought in since, that record still stands. For now, at least.

Sept. 29-30, 1987: Phils play spoiler
Phillies 3, Mets 0
Phillies 4, Mets 3 (10)

The Mets won their second World Series title in 1986 and were hoping to at least have a chance to repeat in ‘87. On September 29, the Mets were two games out of first place with five games remaining on the schedule, and because their final three games would be played against the first-place St. Louis Cardinals, all they really had to do to guarantee a meaningful final series was win one of their next two games against a distinctly average Phillies team. We put the results above, you know where this is going. The Mets managed just one hit against Phillies starter Don Carman on the 29th, and an extra-inning loss on the 30th left them 3 1/2 games out of first place with three games to play -- which meant that the Phillies, completely out of contention and playing for virtually nothing, effectively eliminated the Mets. If you can't make the playoffs, taking your rivals out of it is the next best thing, right?

June 11, 1985: Phillies’ highest-scoring game
Phillies 26, Mets 7

By the mid-to-late-80s, the Mets were an exciting, slightly offbeat contender, while the Phillies scuffled. So, obviously, this would be when the Phillies kicked the Mets around for their highest-scoring game in franchise history. (Yes, both teams have set their respective records against each other.) Not that being blown out quite that badly is ever an especially uplifting experience, but this one was especially brutal; the Phillies were up 16-0 after two innings, and in part because Mets starter Tom Gorman recorded just one out, two different Mets relievers left to mop-up duty gave up 10 runs each. They call these games “laughers” for a reason, there’s nothing else you can do.

Somehow, despite the Phillies scoring 26 runs (and giving up seven, which on any other day would have been significant) there were only two home runs hit in this game -- by the same player, in the same inning. Phillies left fielder Von Hayes led off the game with a solo home run and hit a grand slam just minutes later, which made him the first player in AL/NL history to hit two home runs in the first inning of the same game.

Oct. 2, 1965: 18-inning game ends in a tie
Phillies 0, Mets 0 (18)

This game involved two of the best pitching performances in baseball history, as both starters (Rob Gardner for the Mets, Chris Short for the Phillies) turned in 15 scoreless innings. This game also technically, officially, didn’t happen.

Here’s the thing -- in 1965, there was a 1 a.m. curfew in place for baseball games in New York City. This one dragged on late into the night, in part because it was the second game of a doubleheader (yes, these teams played 27 innings of baseball that day). The game was called after 18 innings. Today, a game suspended after 18 innings would resume in the top of the 19th, but at the time, league rules dictated that any suspended game had to be replayed in its entirety. This not only left the Mets and Phillies to play another doubleheader the next day, but also effectively overwrote the non-results of the previous night’s marathon. This game has mostly been consigned to history, but still, it does feel like the baseball equivalent of a never-ending game night that your family has never really come back from.

June 21, 1964: Jim Bunning’s perfect game
Phillies 6, Mets 0

Bunning’s perfect game was the first perfect game thrown in the National League in over 80 years and made him the first pitcher in Major League history to throw a no-hitter/perfect game in both the AL and NL. Pretty cool. It also came at the expense of a Mets club on its way to losing over 100 games in its third season of existence, and on its own field, too. (Fun fact: Six pitchers would no-hit the Mets at home before the Mets finally had their first no-hitter at Citi Field in 2012.) There was no time to dwell on what went wrong here, either -- the Mets had to take the field again just minutes later for the second game of their scheduled doubleheader. (Yes, they lost that one, too.)