The Best 50-Game Stretches in Baseball History

Last season, the Houston Astros had one of the worst runs in MLB history, losing 43 out of 50 games during July and August. I wrote about the worst 50-game stretches ever then, but now, almost exactly a year later, I have reason to write about the best 50-game stretches, because the Los Angeles Dodgers have been on an incredible run. At the end of play on June 21, the Dodgers were 30-42, in last place in the NL West, and baseball's biggest disappointment. Since then though, LA has gone 42-10, taken over 1st place and built a commanding lead, and become the betting favorites to win the World Series. How often does a team go on a run this good?

Here are the best 50-game stretches in baseball since 1901, when the American League was formally organized and what is commonly thought of as the 'modern era' began:

1) 45-5 (1906 Cubs)

2) 43-7 (1912 Giants)

3) 42-8 (1941 Yankees, 1942 Cardinals, 2013 Dodgers)

6) 41-9 (1909 Pirates, 1913 Giants, 1914 Athletics, 1931 Athletics, 1938 Yankees, 1939 Yankees, 1944 Cardinals, 1946 Red Sox, 1953 Dodgers, 1975 Reds, 1998 Yankees)

17) 40-10 (1902 Pirates, 1907 Cubs, 1910 Cubs, 1928 Yankees, 1929 Athletics, 1947 Yankees, 1951 Indians, 1953 Yankees, 1954 Giants, 1954 Indians, 1977 Royals, 1977 Yankees, 2001 Athletics, 2001 Mariners, 2005 Athletics)

Yep, the best 5-game stretch in baseball history was turned in by the Cubs. Of course, it was 107 years ago, so there's that. The Dodgers' stretch this season hasn't been bettered in 101 years and hasn't even been matched for 71 years. Since 1953, the only teams to come within even a game of it were the 1975 "Big Red Machine" Cincinnati Reds and the 1998 Yankees, widely considered to be the two best teams of the last 40-50 years.

31 times a team has won 40+ out of 50 games in a season, with 12 different franchises accounting for all 31 of them. Franchises with the most "40+ wins in 50 games" stretches:

Yankees (8)
Athletics (5)
Cubs and Giants (3)
Cardinals, Dodgers, Indians, and Pirates (2)
Mariners, Red Sox, Reds, and Royals (1)

The Mariners and Royals are the only teams among that dozen that weren't among the original 16 franchises that existed in 1901. That's not particularly surprising, given that of the 31 different 40+ win stretches, 23 of them came before 1961, when expansion began. As was true with the worst 50-game stretches, most of the best ones happened a long time ago. For what I'm sure in a combination of reasons, it seems to have become much harder for a team to be good enough to win as many games in so short a time (or bad enough to lose so many). It's become far more rare, happening just five times in the last 36 seasons.

It also seems worth pointing out that of the 30 previous teams with such a successful run during the season, 27 of them made the playoffs, with the only exceptions being the 1902 Pirates (who didn't go to the postseason because the postseason didn't exist that season), the 1951 Indians (who didn't go to the playoffs despite their 93-61 record), and the 2005 Athletics (who won 88 games). 25 out of the 30 played in the World Series, with 15 of them winning it. The 2013 Dodgers are a near lock to make the playoffs, and have as good a shot at winning the World Series as anyone.

The best 50-game stretches in each season since the turn of the century:

2000: 36-14 (Giants and White Sox)
2001: 40-10 (Athletics and Mariners)
2002: 39-11 (Braves and Athletics)
2003: 38-12 (Braves)
2004: 39-11 (Cardinals)
2005: 40-10 (Athletics)
2006:38-12 (Twins)
2007: 36-14 (Red Sox)
2008: 34-16 (Angels, Astros, Brewers, Cubs, and Rays)
2009: 37-13 (Angels and Yankees)
2010: 37-13 (Phillies, Twins, White Sox)
2011: 37-13 (Phillies)
2012: 36-14 (Reds and Yankees)
2013: 42-8 (Dodgers)

Finally, here is the best 50-game stretch for each franchise since 1901:

Angels: 37-13 (2009)
Astros: 37-13 (1998, 2004)
Athletics: 41-9 (1914, 1931)
Blue Jays: 35-15 (1984, 1985, 1999)
Braves: 39-11 (1993, 2002)
Brewers: 36-14 (2011)
Cardinals: 42-8 (1942)
Cubs: 45-5 (1906)
Diamondbacks: 38-12 (1999)
Dodgers: 42-8 (2013)
Giants: 43-7 (1912)
Indians: 40-10 (1951, 1954)
Mariners: 40-10 (2001)
Marlins: 34-16 (2003)
Mets: 38-12 (1969)
Nationals: 35-15 (1994, 2012)
Orioles: 38-12 (1966, 1969, 1970)
Padres: 35-15 (1998)
Phillies: 37-13 (1976, 1977, 2010, 2011)
Pirates: 41-9 (1909)
Rangers: 35-15 (1977)
Rays: 34-16 (2008, 2010)
Red Sox: 41-9 (1946)
Reds: 41-9 (1975)
Rockies: 35-15 (2009)
Royals: 40-10 (1977)
Tigers: 39-11 (1984)
Twins: 38-12 (2006)
White Sox: 39-11 (1983)
Yankees: 42-8 (1941)



Each Team's Madduxes and Madduxes Against

Hall of Fame pitcher AND fashion icon
Last night Major League Baseball's official Twitter feed referenced the Maddux. Sadly, they did not mention my name, or link to the original post on the topic, but it was still really, really cool to see them mention it. I did a Twitter search for mentions of the Maddux, and found dozens and dozens, most of which probably have no idea that I came up with the term. These things seem like a sign that the Maddux is really becoming a thing (thanks in large part to Jonah Keri giving it a whole lotta love), which is pretty darn cool for me. In addition to my original post on the Maddux, where I explained what it is, and listed a bunch of factoids relating to it, I've put together a few other posts with Maddux-related info. This post will list how many Madduxes each team has thrown, and also how many each team has had thrown against it.

LAST UPDATED: End of 2013 season

Every team has thrown at least one Maddux.

Most Madduxes:
20: Braves
15: Pirates
14: Blue Jays, Phillies, Twins
13: Dodgers
12: Cardinals, Cubs, Giants
11: Angels, Brewers, Reds
9: Mariners, Red Sox, Yankees
8: Astros, Athletics, Nationals/Expos (4 in each form), Padres
7: Rangers, White Sox
6: Indians, Mets, Orioles, Tigers
5: Diamondbacks, Rays, Royals
3: Marlins, Rockies


It should come as no surprise to learn that the team Greg Maddux spent most of his career with has the highest total. The Pirates at #2 might be a surprise, unless you know that Zane Smith's 7 Madduxes are second only to Greg himself, and all 7 of them came with Pittsburgh. It also shouldn't it be a surprise that the expansion teams that weren't around until 1993 or 1998 land at the bottom of the list. Frankly, it shouldn't be too surprising to see the Royals near the bottom either, given their lack of success in the Maddux era.

Most Madduxes against:
17: Nationals/Expos (5 as Nationals, 12 as Expos)
16: Angels
15: Cardinals
14: Cubs
13: Astros
12: Reds
11: Indians, Mets
10: Blue Jays, Pirates, Royals
9: Braves, Brewers, Dodgers, Giants, Rays, Tigers, Twins
8: Orioles, White Sox
7: Athletics, Mariners, Red Sox, Rockies, Yankees
6: Padres, Phillies
5: Diamondbacks
4: Rangers
3: Marlins

The Expos played in the same division as some of the Maddux's greatest practitioners, leading to their lofty total. The Marlins land at the very bottom of the list, just as they did above. They missed out on the first five years of the Maddux era, but even so, they've been involved in far fewer than their share of Madduxes. Yet another thing that stinks about being a Marlins fan.

I'll do my best to keep these lists current.

Six Extra-Inning Games on One Day

Earlier this year, I wrote about MLB being on-pace this season for a record number of extra inning games. That's still true, though the pace has fallen from 272 to 254 (the record is 237). Yesterday went a long way towards the quest to break that record, as there were 6 different games that went to extra innings. That's not a record (quite), but it's close. The record for most extra-inning games on the same day is 7, and that's happened twice. Including those two days, there have been 6 or more extra-inning MLB games on the same day ten times*.

*I used Baseball-Reference's Play Index (and hours and hours of scrolling through a list of more than 15,000 extra-inning games) to find these dates, and their data for that sort of thing dates back to 1916. It's certainly possible that there were one or two other days with 6+ extra-inning games prior to 1916, though because there were just 16 teams back then, a day with so many extra-inning games was far less likely. In any event, this list technically covers only from 1916 on.

Here are each of those ten days, in reverse chronological order:

*August 13, 2013*

Cardinals 4, Pirates 3 (14 innings)
Reds 6, Cubs 4 (11 innings)
White Sox 4, Tigers 3 (11 innings)
Red Sox 4, Blue Jays 2 (11 innings)
Diamondbacks 4, Orioles 3 (11 innings)
Marlins 1, Royals 0 (10 innings)

*June 6, 2010*

Dodgers 5, Braves 4 (11 innings)
Orioles 4, Red Sox 3 (11 innings)
Giants 6, Pirates 5 (10 innings)
Padres 6, Phillies 5 (10 innings)
Brewers 4, Cardinals 3 (10 innings)
Reds 5, Nationals 4 (10 innings)

*August 24, 2008*

Brewers 4, Pirates 3 (12 innings)
Rockies 4, Reds 3 (12 innings)
Phillies 5, Dodgers 2 (11 innings)
Red Sox 6, Blue Jays 5 (11 innings)
Astros 6, Mets 4 (10 innings)
White Sox 6, Rays 5 (10 innings)

*August 15, 1998 (7)*

Cardinals 8, Pirates 7 (12 innings)
Devil Rays 8, Royals 6 (11 innings)
Athletics 10, Tigers 8 (11 innings)
Astros 5, Cubs 4 (11 innings)
Angels 6, Blue Jays 3 (11 innings)
Giants 4, Marlins 3 (10 innings)
Orioles 9, Indians 8 (10 innings)

*June 10, 1998*

Brewers 9, Royals 6 (15 innings)
Pirates 4, Indians 3 (11 innings)
White Sox 10, Cardinals 8 (11 innings)
Blue Jays 4, Marlins 3 (10 innings)
Rockies 9, Rangers 8 (10 innings)
Orioles 5, Phillies 2 (10 innings)

*May 11, 1988*

Giants 5, Cardinals 4 (16 innings)
Indians 4, Angels 3 (13 innings)
Pirates 2, Dodgers 1 (11 innings)
Phillies 4, Reds 3 (11 innings)
Mets 9, Astros 8 (10 innings)
Cubs 1, Padres 0 (10 innings)

*July 17, 1978*

Rangers 2, Orioles 0 (11 innings)
Royals 9, Yankees 7 (11 innings)
Astros 2, Phillies 1 (11 innings)
Pirates 8, Padres 7 (10 innings)
Tigers 4, Angels 3 (10 innings)
Red Sox 3, Twins 2 (10 innings)

*May 12, 1963*

Senators 3, Red Sox 2 (14 innings)
Cardinals 2, Pirates 1 (12 innings)
Angels 7, White Sox 6 (12 innings)
Phillies 6, Braves 5 (12 innings, second game)
Phillies 4, Braves 3 (11 innings, first game)
Colt .45s 2, Cubs 1 (10 innings)

*August 22, 1951*

Indians 6, Senators 5 (14 innings)
Red Sox 3, Browns 1 (13 innings)
Tigers 7, Yankees 6 (12 innings)
Braves 5, Pirates 4 (10 innings)
Dodgers 4, Cardinals 3 (10 innings, first game)
Dodgers 8, Cardinals 7 (10 innings, second game)

*July 4, 1918 (7)*

White Sox 7, Tigers 6 (12 innings)
Phillies 3, Braves 2 (12 innings)
Athletics 2, Red Sox 1 (11 innings)
Pirates 1, Reds 0 (11 innings)
Cubs 1, Cardinals 0 (10 innings)
Dodgers 4, Giants 3 (10 innings)
Indians 9, Browns 8 (10 innings)

A few things that jump out at me:


- Five of the ten days occurred in 1998 or later, and the farther back you go, the more rare so many extra-inning games become. This shouldn't be all that surprising, given that as of 1998, there were 30 teams, and until 1961, there were just 16 teams (with the majority of that growth taking place during the 1960s). It makes sense that you'd have fewer extra-inning games in the 1940s, because there were far fewer games in general, roughly half as many. That makes July 4, 1918 all the more impressive, doesn't it?

The secret: Doubleheaders

All 16 teams were matched up for a twin bill that day, as was common practice on major holidays in that era. Even with all those double headers, each of those seven extra-inning games came from a different pair of teams. That means that the only two teams in baseball that didn't play extra innings that day were the Yankees and Senators.

- None of the ten days were in April or September (or March or October, for that matter). Those months are less likely to have so many extra-inning games in one day, in part because those months aren't always fully a part of the regular season schedule, and with April especially, you're more likely to have games postponed, leaving fewer to potentially reach extra innings each day.

- Six of the ten days occurred in a year ending in 8. That's just a coincidence (...or is it?!?!).

- Yesterday (August 13, 2013) was one of just three of these ten days in which five of the extra-inning games went 11+ innings. There have also been two days on which there were five total extra-inning games, all of which went 11+ (June 12, 1983 and July 10, 2008), making yesterday one of just five dates in history with five 11+ inning games.

- June 10, 1998 fell during interleague play, making it the only date in history with six extra-inning interleague games.

- Incredibly, the Pirates were involved in all ten of those days (with a record of 4-6).

Days like yesterday have become less rare than they used to be, but they're still far from common, happening only every three years or so since the league reached its current total of 30 teams. If you were at a game last night, there's a 40% chance you got free baseball (and since I was at the White Sox/Tigers contest, I was one of those lucky recipients!), and what's not to like about that?


Random Ballplayers: Bret Saberhagen (also Felix Hernandez)

I first started paying attention to baseball in 1986, my first year of playing t-ball. There was no internet (not that I was old enough to put it to good use, had it existed), and cable TV wasn't something my family would have for years. Baseball cards, the sports section of the Chicago Tribune we had delivered each weekday, and Mr. Coughlin (the father of two friends who lived across the alley from me) were the sources of whatever baseball knowledge I had. In 1986, the Kansas City Royals were the defending World Series champions and Bret Saberhagen was the reigning American League Cy Young winner. A rudimentary understanding of baseball statistics and one look at the back of any of his cards would have made it clear, even to a 6-year-old, that Saberhagen was a fantastic pitcher.

A summary of Saberhagen's 1985 season, for anyone who's unfamiliar or may have forgotten: He went 20-6, and while I now know better than to care much about a pitcher's win/loss record, that's still an impressive figure. He put up a 2.87 ERA, 3rd in the AL; he walked just 38 hitters in 32 starts/235.1 innings, which gave him the best walk-rate in the league. He received 23 of the 28 1st place votes and ran away with the Cy Young Award. He was also just 21 years old, which made him the youngest AL Cy Young winner ever (that same season, Dwight Gooden won the NL's award at the even younger age of 20).

He also had one of the best World Series by any pitcher in recent history. He threw a 1-run complete game in Game 3, then outdid himself in Game 7, throwing a 5-hit shutout, and needing just 92 pitches to do it (giving him the only known Maddux in postseason history). He was named World Series MVP.

It was Saberhagen's 1989 that really stood out for me though, and clinched the notion of him being one of the greats in my mind. He went 23-6 that year, leading the league in wins, complete games, and innings pitched. His ERA that season was 2.16. That didn't just lead the league, it was the lowest I'd ever seen. ERA was the stat for pitchers, as far as I was concerned, and so I considered Saberhagen to have had the best season I'd ever seen. The hindsight of advanced metrics does nothing to take the shine off that season, as he also led the league in WAR and ERA+. There probably haven't been ten seasons in the 24 years since then that were any better than Saberhagen's 1989.

Two years later, Saberhagen was again one of baseball's best pitchers, among the league leaders in most key categories. The following winter, in the first baseball trade ever to really shock me, the Royals dealt Saberhagen to the Mets. Kansas City's front office cited back-to-back 6th place finishes in making the trade. "We have finished 6th the last two seasons," said GM Hank Robinson, "so if Bret Saberhagen wins four more Cy Young Awards and we didn't win, it doesn't mean a thing.*"

*It's sort of funny to think of the Royals making such drastic changes because of two poor finishes (one of which came despite a winning record), given that they've had so many far worse seasons since then, and are yet to get back to the playoffs.

Saberhagen was still just 27 years old, which is indirectly what led me to write this post in the first place, because it's the great success he had through the age of 27 that made me think of him yesterday. How? Why? Felix Hernandez is 27 year old right now, and I was looking at how his career performance to this point stands up against others throughout baseball history. There are a lot of strong similarities between the two pitchers.

Through age-27 season (with a quarter of Felix's season still to come):

Pitcher
ERA
FIP
ERA+
K/BB
HR/9
BA
OPS+
bWAR
fWAR
B.Saberhagen
3.21
3.10
128
3.30
0.68
.248
79
41.0
39.8
F.Hernandez
3.13
3.22
130
3.25
0.71
.243
81
39.2
40.4

Felix strikes out a lot more guys than Saberhagen did (he also plays in an era with far more strikeouts in general, and Saberhagen finished in the top ten in strikeouts three times through his age-27 season, so he was no slouch), but Saberhagen walked fewer hitters as well, so their K/BB ratios and FIP are still remarkably similar. In any event, the point I'm trying to make isn't that the two of them were identical in terms of how they attacked hitters or found their success, but that the success they found as young pitchers (measured by WAR, or by hits and runs allowed) was about as similar as you could find.

If you're not familiar with Saberhagen, you can use Hernandez's career to this point as a reference for understanding just how good he (Saberhagen) was in his days with the Royals.

Saberhagen had just one more great season in his career, and that season (1994) was ended prematurely by the strike. He had a 2.74 ERA when the season was cut off, second in the league, and he'd walked just 13 hitters in 24 starts/177.1 innings, helping him to a K/BB ratio of 11.00, which is the highest figure in modern history. In the National League, only Greg Maddux was better than Saberhagen (and if you want to talk about the greatest seasons in history, Maddux's 1994 has to be a part of the conversation).

Saberhagen was only 30 years old that season, but over the rest of his career, he'd throw only 488 more innings, making just three total appearances after the age of 35. With a such a sharp decline, Saberhagen was long removed from his last great season by the time he arrived on the Hall of Fame ballot in 2007. He received just 7 votes (out of 545 ballots), too few to even stick around for a second year as a candidate. I don't know that he did quite enough to deserve induction, but he's got a decent case, one that certainly deserved more consideration than it was given. Few pitchers have had more great seasons than he did, Saberhagen just didn't add many solid seasons to his great ones, seasons that would have bolstered his career totals.

Cooperstown didn't come calling, but for most any baseball fan who came of age during the 1980s, Saberhagen will long be remembered as one of the best.