So did the 2019 Dodgers
And so, too, did the 2018 Dodgers.
Leading one’s league in runs scored and fewest runs allowed in consecutive seasons is rare. Thanks to a data query run by Baseball-Reference.com, we know that the 1970 and ’71 Orioles did it. The 1942, ’44 and ’46 Cardinals did it three times in five wartime seasons. But no team had done it for three straight seasons since the Joe DiMaggio Yankees of the 1930s.
In fact, New York led the American League in runs scored and fewest runs allowed an incredible four seasons in a row from 1936 to ’39. The Yankees won the World Series all four years.
While the Dodgers of recent vintage can’t match those Yankees teams’ success in October, they have racked up many accolades of their own, including eight straight National League West division titles, a pair of NL pennants in 2017 and 2018 and a World Series championship in 2020.
Los Angeles came away with only one Commissioner’s Trophy in three trips to the World Series in a four-season span, but the teams that defeated the Dodgers in October—the 2017 Astros and 2018 Red Sox—were two of the stronger champions of the expansion era (since 1961).
This story is from the December 2020 edition of Baseball America.
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This story is from the December 2020 edition of Baseball America.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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