Has a team won the World Series with a losing record?
Worst Baseball Teams To Win World Series
Louis Cardinals were the worst team to win the World Series. They finished the regular season with only a 83-78 record, but they not only made the World Series, but they beat the Detroit Tigers to win the championship.
However, since they added the ALCS and NLCS in 1969—and subsequently the ALDS and NLDS in 1995—the 1976 Cincinnati Reds are the only team to win the World Series without a single postseason loss.
But the odds still are against slow starters: Entering the 2022 World Series, only 14 teams out of 92 have come back to win a best-of-seven series after dropping three of the first four contests. Here's a look at each of the 14 "miracle" clubs to overcome a 3-1 series deficit and how they came all the way back to win.
In 38 of the World Series, the team that lost the first game came back to win. This means that teams that lose the first game have a roughly 36 percent chance of winning.
Baseball (MLB).
In 1897, the Chicago Colts of the National League defeated the Louisville Colonels, 36–7. The modern record (i.e., post-1900) for margin of victory was set in 2007, when the Texas Rangers defeated the Baltimore Orioles, 30–3.
If someone told you that a team recorded no hits in a baseball game, you would probably -- and reasonably -- assume that team lost said game. Well, on June 28, 2008, the Dodgers beat that Angels despite not recording a single hit in the game.
Conversely, teams have had their 3–0 comeback fall short after evening a series nine times: five in the NHL, three in the NBA, and one in MLB. The most recent example is the Houston Astros of MLB in the 2020 American League Championship Series.
Jim McIngvale, founder of the Gallery Furniture chain and known as “Mattress Mack,” made wagers earlier this year including $3 million — at 10 to 1 odds — with Caesars in May that the Astros would win baseball's championship.
Put another way, more than one out of five World Championships has been decided by shutout, including six 1-0 games and seven 2-0 contests. The very first World Series in 1903 finished in a shutout as the Boston Americans, behind Bill Dineen, beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 3-0.
1) 2005 San Diego Padres
Postseason result: 3-0 NLDS loss to St.
Has a player on the losing team ever won World Series MVP?
Bobby Richardson of the 1960 New York Yankees is the only player in World Series history to be named MVP despite being on the losing team.
The Yankees have won three World Series in a row (1998-2000).
