Alex Bregman and Yuli Gurriel celebrate the Houston Astros’ unceremonious dispatch of the New York Yankees. Will the team do the same to the Philadelphia Phillies?
WENDELL CRUZ / USA TODAY SPORTS / TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
Nobody has won a World Series without losing a postseason game since 1976. Of course, Major League Baseball’s playoffs were smaller back then: The ’76 Cincinnati Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies in a three-game National League Championship Series, then swept the New York Yankees in a four-game World Series. The playoffs were an even more exclusive affair before that, as the World Series was the only playoff series until MLB added its two championship series in 1969. Twelve teams pulled off World Series sweeps between 1907 and 1966, vanquishing the other playoff team from the opposite league.
The…
