However, in the last two weeks of the season, the front-running Philadelphia Phillies — who had seemed a lock for the pennant — unexpectedly began to unravel while both the Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds got hot. The Phillies lost ten straight games, creating a four-team scramble for the National League pennant, involving the Phils, Cards, Reds and San Francisco Giants. Philadelphia came to St. Louis after losing seven straight at home and were swept by the Cardinals, who notched their eighth straight win and moved into first place at 92–67, with a three-game series at home with the lowly New York Mets (51–108) remaining. The Cardinals lost the first two, which dropped them into a tie with Cincinnati, one ahead of Philadelphia. On the final day of the regular season on Sunday, October 4, the Phillies blanked the Reds 10–0 and the Cardinals took the Mets 11–5 to avoid a three-way playoff and clinched their first NL pennant since 1946; they then defeated the New York Yankees in a seven-game World Series.