A month ago, I listened to one of my favorite podcast shows. In the show, the host mentioned an interesting stat. The Rangers-Diamondbacks World Series matchup is a rare one. During the regular season, the Rangers won 90 games and the Diamondbacks got 84 wins. In total, these two teams combined for 174 wins. The number is the fewest combined regular season wins in a World Series matchup without counting shortened seasons.
After listening to the show, I began to think about a question. A combined 174 wins matchup might be rare. Nonetheless, in the World Series, normally, how many combined wins do we see in a matchup?
To understand a little bit more, I reviewed the numbers from 2000 to 2023.
In 2006, the Tigers, which won 95 games, and the Cardinals, which won only 83 games, were playing in the Fall Classic. These 2 teams combined for 178 wins. Additionally, in 2014, the Giants won the World Series title. Back then, they won 88 games. At the same time, the Royals, which won the AL pennant, got 89 wins. These 2 teams didn’t finish the season with at least 90 wins. In total, they combined for 177 wins in 2014.
However, we might see some different situations in some years. In 2004, the Red Sox ended the World Series drought. During the regular season, they won 98 games. Meanwhile, the NL pennant winner Cardinals won 105 games. So, in the 2004 season, it’s a combined 200+ wins World Series matchup. Moreover, in 2017, the Dodgers and the Astros were playing in the Fall Classic. These two teams each had a season with at least 100 wins. Furthermore, in 2018 and 2019, the World Series matchups were 2 combined 200 wins matchups.
So, most of the time, when we watch the World Series, those two teams might combine to win at least 180 games during the regular season. Sometimes, we will see a combined 200+ wins World Series matchup. Nonetheless, it’s quite rare to see two 100+ wins teams play against each other in the Fall Classic. The 2017 World Series matchup was the eighth time in which both league champions finished with triple-digit win totals during the regular season. Nevertheless, we are not going to go deep about what happened in this World Series. However, it’s worth mentioning the 2020 World Series. We know that it was a shortened season. The Rays finished the season with 40 wins and 20 losses. At the same time, the Dodgers got 43 wins and lost 17 games. These two teams combined for 83 wins. When we calculate the combined winning percentage, the number is .692. This number isn’t going to be easy to reach again in the short term.
There are a lot of uncertainties in baseball. Furthermore, there are even more things that are unpredictable in October baseball. An 80+ win team could have a good October and win the league pennant. At the same time, a 100-win team might just fall short in the postseason. Nonetheless, most of the time, two teams which played in the World Series, would combine to win at least 180 games during the regular season.
No comments:
Post a Comment