Phillies secure playoff spot, fail to clinch NL East

PHILADELPHIA – The Philadelphia Phillies begin their World Series push this weekend. Game 1 of the National League Division Series tees off Saturday at Citizens Bank Park, and for the playoffs, the team will be offering fans a 9/9/9 challenge box at concession stands.

A box filled with nine hot dogs and nine beers with the words "9 9 9 challenge" on top and a an empty scoreboard on the side.

The Philadelphia Phillies’ 9/9/9 challenge box. (Credit: MLB via Facebook)

Phillies 9/9/9 challenge box

What we know:

 Major League Baseball shared a photo of the box on social media on Friday. Box comes with, you guessed it, nine dogs and nine glasses of beer. 

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The box even has a “Beers” vs “Hot Dogs” scoreboard for customers to keep track of how much they’ve consumed.

What is the 9/9/9 challenge?

The backstory:

By the numbers:

The 9/9/9 challenge is simple, on its face. All you have to do is eat nine hot dogs and drink nine beers in the time it takes to complete a nine-inning baseball game.

Easy enough, but the challenge has only gotten more difficult over the years, as MLB games have gotten shorter in recent seasons.

According to the league, nine-inning games clocked in at two hours and 38 minutes on average in 2025. 

So, if you were to try and complete the 9/9/9 challenge, you’d have to eat one hot dog or drink one beer every nine minutes, approximately.

What we don’t know:

It’s not clear how much the 9/9/9 challenge box will cost.

What’s next:

Game 1 of the National League Division Series is on Saturday, Oct. 4. First pitch is at 6:38 p.m. Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani will make his postseason pitching debut. He’ll go against Christopher Sánchez for the Phillies.

The Source: Information in this story is from MLB’s website and Instagram page.

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