The Houston Astros are the first World Series club to lose four games at home. (The Washington Post/Toni L. Sandys) HOUSTON (KTRK) — Maid Park has seen this before—three times in fact.
In 2007, the Mets lost four straight home Games 6 and 7 to go down as the only team to ever do so. And in 2015, the Chicago Cubs dropped the last three games of their series with the San Francisco Giants to end that season's title run. Now, the Astros have a chance to join them at the bottom of the barrel.
This year's World Series is the best-of-seven matchup between the Astros and the Indians. Both teams are currently winning two games per series. So far, no team has been able to win three in a row during the Fall Classic.
However, it's not out of the question. In fact, it happened twice during the regular season. In August, the Cardinals won three in a row after losing the first two games of the series. They went on to beat the Dodgers 4-3 in Game 5 to advance to the National League Championship Series. In October, the Red Sox won three in a row after losing the first two games of the series.
There has never been a World Series in which the host team lost every game. The 2019 World Series is on track to be the inaugural one. The Astros won the following three games in Washington after the Nationals won the first two in Houston. This achievement was closest to being accomplished in 1996. The Atlanta Braves lost all 16 games at Turner Field during that season's series.
In fact, only two teams have ever won the World Series while losing every game at home: the 1916 Chicago Cubs and the 1919 Cincinnati Reds. The Cubs defeated the National League champion Pittsburgh Pirates in seven games. The Redbirds beat the New York Yankees in five contests.
That's not very many teams who were able to win the World Series with a losing record at home. In fact, no team has done it since the Atlanta Braves in 1995 and 1996.
The most recent team to lose every game of its World Series at home was the 2009 Los Angeles Angels. They were beaten by the Texas Rangers in seven games.
It's worth mentioning that an NLCS winner has gone 0-3 at home in each of the last six seasons (2012-2017).
The 2018 NL Championship Game saw the Dodgers defeat the Nationals in five games. That's how both teams finished the year with 100 wins.
After trailing three games to none in a best-of-seven playoff series, the listed teams won four straight games. The 2004 Boston Red Sox, shown here at the White House, were the first MLB club to force a game seven after trailing a series 0-3.
According to CBS, the team down 0-2 in a best-of-seven series wins only 17.1 percent of the time. It's not an insurmountable endeavor, and the Mets have done it before, most notably in 1986. That squad is one of 11 to win a World Series after coming back from a 2-0 deficit.
Is there a team that has ever lost three World Series in a row? Yes. 1907–09 Detroit Tigers The Chicago Cubs took the first two spots, while the Pittsburgh Pirates took third. All three teams came back from 3-1 series deficits to challenge for the championship.
In 2007, the Boston Red Sox became the latest team to try and break this mark when they went down 3-1 to the Cleveland Indians in Game 6 of the ALCS before coming back to win 4-3 in 12 innings on Carl Everett's walk-off home run. However, because they won both the ALDS and ALCS by one game each, they were not able to defend their title.
The last team to do so was the Chicago White Stockings/Black Hats in 1909. They started out the season by winning 100 games, but then lost three straight World Series to finish at 3-1-1.
After the 1912 season, the White Stockings disbanded, leaving the Tigers as the only team to have lost three World Series in a row.
In fact, after five games, the side with fewer home games has secured or led the series 49 times to 42. Which gets us to the point: the host team has won 59 percent of World Series since 1925. If we have discovered a genuine impact, the benefit is substantially bigger than any conventional interpretation of home field.
The conclusion is clear: there is no doubt that the home team wins more often than not in the World Series.
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