Finishing Off Strong – Most Wins in the Final 20 Games
Posted by Raphy on September 13, 2009
As the baseball season enters its final stretch lets take a look at all the teams since 1901 to win at least 17 of their final 20 regular season games. For a more extensive list including the teams before 1901, you can view my original search here.
Tm Sched StartDate EndDate Games W-L WP RS RA Tot W-L Rnk Postseason ---+-----+-----------+-----------+-----------+---------+------+------+------+---------+---+------------------+ NYY sched 1960-09-10 1960-10-02 136-155 18-2 .900 94 57 97-57 1 AL Pennant CHC sched 1935-09-07 1935-09-29 135-154 18-2 .900 129 53 100-54 1 NL Pennant OAK sched 2001-09-09 2001-10-07 143-162 17-3 .850 120 65 102-60 2 Wildcard MON sched 1994-07-22 1994-08-11 95-114 17-3 .850 102 60 74-40 1 CLE sched 1952-09-05 1952-09-28 136-155 17-3 .850 103 49 93-61 2 BAL sched 1970-09-10 1970-10-01 143-162 17-3 .850 98 50 108-54 1 WS Champ STL sched 1942-09-06 1942-09-27 137-156 17-3 .850 92 46 106-48 1 WS Champ
There are a lot of playoff (or would have been playoff ) teams here, but that's to be expected. The question is how many of these teams were playoff teams because of their runs. Here's a quick look:
1960 NYY - On September 9th the Yankees were in second place a half game behind Baltimore. Twenty games later, the Yankees had run away with the league title, winning by an 8 game margin.
1935 CHC - On September 6th the Cubs were 3 games into a 21 game winning streak and stood in second place, 2.5 games behind the Cardinals. By the time the streak was over the Cubs had built a six game lead and even though they dropped the last 2, they beat out the Cards by 4 games.
2001 OAK - This run was totally insignificant. On September 8th the A's trailed the 102-40 Mariners by 17 games, but had an 11 game wild card lead over the Twins. By season's end the A's had won 102 games, finishing 14 games behind the record setting Mariners and winning the wild card by 17 games.
1994 MON -They started the run tied with Braves for first and finished it six games ahead. It wasn't supposed to be the end of the season and in the end none of it mattered. However, if it had, it would have been quite a stretch.
1952 CLE - After losing an early season lead and trailing by 7.5 games in the middle of the season, the Indians made a ferocious charge at the Yankees. With 20 game left, the Indians stood 3.5 out. They were as close as 1/2 game in mid-September and only 1 game with 4 to play. However, the Yankees held them off by going 14-5 during that same time frame and the Indians finished 2 games of the pace.
1970 BAL - meaningless. They extended their lead from 10 games to 15.
1942 STL - The Cardinals were in the midst of their legendary run. On September 5th the Cards were still 3 games behind the Dodgers, but that would not last long. They caught them a week later and finished in first place, 2 games ahead of Brooklyn.
September 13th, 2009 at 8:40 pm
Didn't the Rockies have a stretch like this that year they went to the World Series? Although the numbers I remember might have included the playoffs.
September 13th, 2009 at 8:47 pm
In 2007 Colorado finished the regular season 15-1 and then won their first 7 playoff games.
However, they don't make this list because they lost 3 in a row before their run.
They were 16-4 in their final 20 regular season games.
The 16 winner list is actually a long and impressive one. It may be worth an article for a different day.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/COL/2007-schedule-scores.shtml
September 13th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
The 1987 White Sox finished 16-4 to climb up to 5th place out of 7 in the worst division in baseball. The 1963 Astros finished 16-4 and came in 9th, but the Mets were so bad that year that the Astros were never in danger of finishing last. Couldn't find a team with a great 20-game finish that still finished last.
The 2000 Yankees did limp in though. Their 5-15 finish is the worst 20-game finish of a team that made the postseason... and they won the World Series.
September 14th, 2009 at 5:30 am
the '42 Cards (led by the great Enos Slaughter) had a 21 year old rookie named Musial.
September 14th, 2009 at 9:56 am
Yes, that 1942 Cardinals run was legendary. They finished the season 38-6 and stole the pennant from a great Dodger team that had won 104 games, erasing an August ten-game lead in the process. Musial and Slaughter were great, but that team ERA+ of 135 looks like a misprint.
Raphy's right. So many great finishes. The 1908 Cubs went 16-4 along with the 15-5 Pirates to catch the Giants in a thrilling three-way race. The 1965 Dodgers led most of the season, faltered in early December and then streaked in 16-4 to take the pennant back. The 1969 Mets when 15-5 including a three game losing streak in the middle there... their streak extended back a bit to 22-4 and the other NL pennant race that year featured the Braves going 16-4 to hold off the Giants and Reds. The 1914 Braves also finished 16-4 (game long report misses them because of some ties) and they limped in 4-3 the final week. They ended the season on a 68-19 clip as they climbed from worst to first in the same season.
September 15th, 2009 at 10:29 pm
Any chance we could get something in terms of the opposite of this list? Something like worst final 20 games when at the beginning of that the team was in first?