MLB World Series matchups between No. 1 teams

Congratulations! Your favorite team has won the most games of any club in its league this season and has locked up the No. 1 seed in the playoffs. As a reward for this achievement, your favorite team is guaranteed absolutely nothing.

A memorable regular season doesn’t mean very much once the records are wiped clean at the beginning of the postseason. All contenders must travel a tough road to reach the World Series, and that road has become longer and more treacherous in the era of expanded playoffs. Both No. 1 seeds have reached the World Series only five times in the Wild Card Era (since 1995). That’s another reason why this year’s much-anticipated matchup between the Yankees and Dodgers is so special.

Beyond all of the stars and storylines, it is rare to see the top team from each league survive the postseason gauntlet. Here is a look at what happened during previous World Series in the Divisional Era (since 1969) when No. 1 faced No. 1.

2020: Rays vs. Dodgers
This World Series had an uncanny valley feel to it as it took place in front of a limited number of fans inside Texas’ Globe Life Field amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet this matchup still contained the drama and excitement that we’re used to in October. Game 4 was the wildest of the bunch as Brett Phillips and postseason phenom Randy Arozarena combined to walk off the Dodgers in the bottom of the ninth.

Los Angeles regained control of the series in Game 5 when Clayton Kershaw outdueled future teammate Tyler Glasnow. Mookie Betts added the exclamation point in the Dodgers’ Game 6 clincher with a homer leading off the bottom of the eighth en route to the franchise’s first World Series title since 1988.

2013: Cardinals vs. Red Sox
Down two games to one in St. Louis, the Red Sox needed something to help get the series back in their favor. And they got it on one swing by Jonny Gomes, who smashed a go-ahead three-run dinger in the sixth inning of Game 4. Boston won that night after Cardinals pinch-runner Kolten Wong was picked off for the final out, and then Red Sox pitching limited the Cards to two runs over the final two games of the series.

1999: Yankees vs. Braves
The 103-win Braves were the best team during the regular season, but it was the 98-win Yankees who steamrolled the competition during these playoffs. They went 7-1 on their way to the pennant and then swept Atlanta. The Braves scored just nine runs over the four games. Yankees ace Roger Clemens allowed one run over 7 2/3 innings before series MVP Mariano Rivera recorded the final four outs to give New York the middle piece of its eventual three-peat.

1995: Cleveland vs. Atlanta
Good pitching beat good hitting in this battle. Cleveland’s offense was a juggernaut in 1995, averaging nearly six runs per game and helping the club win 100 times in the 144-game season. But the Braves’ hallowed starting pitchers held those bats in check during the Fall Classic. Greg Maddux set the tone with a complete-game victory in Game 1. Tom Glavine followed that up with six innings of two-run ball in another Braves win the next night. Glavine secured the series for his team and MVP honors for himself by giving up just one hit over eight frames in Game 6.

1992: Blue Jays vs. Braves
The Blue Jays won this Fall Classic thanks to a quartet of one-run triumphs and a handful of clutch late-inning hits. Ed Sprague supplied the first one — a go-ahead pinch-hit home run in the ninth inning of Game 2. Kelly Gruber came up with a game-tying tater in the eighth inning of Game 3 before Candy Maldonado supplied a walk-off single in the ninth. Then, in Game 6 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, 41-year-old Dave Winfield registered the most pivotal play of his Hall of Fame career: a two-run double in the 11th inning that spurred the Blue Jays to their first championship.

1986: Red Sox vs. Mets
One out away. Red Sox fans don’t need the reminder, but they were one out away in Game 6 from knocking off the 108-win Mets and celebrating Boston’s first title since 1918. But New York strung together a 10th-inning rally for the ages — single, single, single, wild pitch — to tie the game before Mookie Wilson and Bill Buckner became linked forever in baseball history.

The Red Sox carried a 3-0 advantage in Game 7 only to see the Mets catch them again. World Series MVP Ray Knight, who scored the winning run in Game 6, belted a solo homer in the seventh inning that gave the Mets a lead they would never relinquish.

1982: Brewers vs. Cardinals
The Brewers headed back to St. Louis looking to finish off this series in Game 6, but the Cardinals scored a 13-1 blowout and then capped it off with a 6-3 win in Game 7. Milwaukee grabbed a 3-1 lead heading to the bottom of the sixth in the finale, but run-scoring singles from Keith Hernandez and George Hendrick put the Cards on top. World Series MVP Darrell Porter and Steve Braun provided some breathing room with RBI knocks in the eighth before Hall of Fame closer Bruce Sutter sealed it.

1979: Pirates vs. Orioles
The Pirates became the second team in World Series history to have three players with at least 11 hits in a series. And no offense to Phil Garner or Omar Moreno, who were fantastic across these seven games, but this series was about one man: Willie Stargell.

The Pirates’ heart and soul, in his age-39 season, was named co-National League MVP with St. Louis’ Keith Hernandez and earned World Series MVP honors with a four-hit performance in Game 7, highlighted by his go-ahead home run in the sixth. The man known as “Pops” went 12-for-30 with seven extra-base hits in the Fall Classic, lifting Pittsburgh out of a 3-1 series deficit to take down the 102-win Orioles.

1976: Yankees vs. Reds
Two years before the Yanks’ repeat, they were on the losing end as the Big Red Machine celebrated back-to-back championships. This was one of the more lopsided World Series you will see; Cincinnati outscored New York 22-8 and won three of the four games by at least four runs. Johnny Bench, the series MVP, went 8-for-15 at the plate and crushed two homers in the Game 4 clincher.

1971: Pirates vs. Orioles
The Pirates won two World Series during the 1970s and both of them involved a Game 7 victory in Baltimore with a franchise icon leading the charge. In this case, it was Roberto Clemente, who tallied 12 hits in 29 at-bats. Like the aforementioned Stargell in ‘79, Clemente provided the most valuable hit of the series: a home run in Game 7. That dinger opened the scoring, and Stargell added an insurance run in the eighth en route to a 2-1 Bucs win.

1970: Orioles vs. Reds
This stood as MLB’s most recent World Series involving two 100-win teams until the Astros and Dodgers met in 2017. Yet the 108-win O’s outclassed the 102-win Reds through the first three games thanks to big hits from AL MVP Boog Powell and strong mound performances from Jim Palmer and Dave McNally. Although Cincinnati staved off elimination in Game 4, the Orioles sat atop the baseball world after Game 5, washing away their bitter memories from the final series on this list.

1969: Mets vs. Orioles
The Miracle Mets hadn’t won more than 73 games in a season before reaching 100 victories in ‘69, their eighth season of existence. Still, they were heavy underdogs against the 109-win Orioles, who won their division by 19 games and swept through the American League Championship Series versus Minnesota. But as we’ve learned frequently, anything can happen in the postseason.

After Baltimore took Game 1, New York’s pitching limited the Orioles’ loaded lineup to only five runs over the next four games – all Mets wins. NL Cy Young Award winner Tom Seaver tossed a 10-inning complete game in Game 4. Jerry Koosman then turned in his second gem of the series in Game 5, going the distance to finish the improbable upset.