Sweeping into World Series no guarantee for Royals
The Royals are riding an impressive winning streak into the World Series, but history says that’s not a great indicator of ongoing success.
Dilip Vishwanat
The 2014 postseason has gone close to perfection for the Kansas City Royals entering their meeting with the San Francisco Giants in the World Series. First topping the Oakland Athletics in the AL Wild Card game, then sweeping past both the Los Angeles Angels and Baltimore Orioles, the team has all the momentum in the world right now.
That is, unless you’re looking for historical support to that premise. Since the introduction of divisional play in 1969, several teams have gone unbeaten on their way to the Fall Classic. The end results are pretty mixed, with the vast majority of examples coming before the beginning of the Wild Card era.
There are a ton of reasons to be excited about the Royals entering their matchup with the Giants, but not losing the past few weeks shouldn’t necessarily be one of them.
The lone modern example
The 2007 Colorado Rockies are the only team since the beginning of Wild Card play in 1995 to reach the World Series without losing a single postseason game. That team, managed by Clint Hurdle and led by eventual NLCS MVP Matt Holliday, swept the Philadelphia Phillies in the NLDS and Arizona Diamondbacks in the NLCS to reach the World Series.
The Royals have to hope they don't repeat Colorado's fate, because the Rockies proceeded to get swept in four games by the Boston Red Sox. Things were ugly right from the beginning, with Boston piling on 13 runs in the first five innings of a 13-1 Game 1 blowout. The teams would alternate close and lopsided games from there, but the end result was the same each time.
The Rockies, of course, were a much different team than the one Dayton Moore has built in Kansas City. Hurdle's team was all about offense, with Holliday, Todd Helton, Brad Hawpe, Troy Tulowitzki and Garrett Atkins all putting up big numbers, and little of the small-ball that's come to define Moore's Royals.
Colorado certainly didn't have the kind of pitching and defensive ability that's carried Kansas City throughout this year. The Rockies' best pitcher in 2007 was Jeff Francis, and no starter on the club posted an ERA lower than Aaron Cook's 4.12 mark.
And one other minor note: the opponents Colorado faced on its way to the World Series weren’t exactly world beaters. The 2007 Phillies were 89-73 with a number of quality position players, but didn’t match up well with the Rockies given their lack of high-level pitching beyond a young Cole Hamels. The 2007 Diamondbacks, meanwhile, were something of a fluke, with a 79-83 Pythagorean record well out of line with their NL West-winning performance. This year’s Angels and Orioles were definitely tougher opponents.
So the Rockies, while accomplishing the same feat, aren’t exactly a perfect match for these Royals.
The rest of history, which hardly applies to the Royals
Numerous other teams have swept their way to the World Series since the beginning of divisional play in 1969, but given the different circumstances used before 1993, they’re not exactly useful comparisons for the current Royals, either. Back in the day, the MLB postseason just wasn’t nearly as long.
From 1969-93, there were 14 instances of teams sweeping their way to the Fall Classic, but it’s important to put that in perspective. These teams won three straight games in the LCS -- and that’s it. Sure, it’s still a fantastic accomplishment, but it’s much different than the Royals winning eight straight games against three different teams.
Most of the instances predate the Royals' last appearance in the postseason, anyways. In 1988, the Athletics swept the Red Sox in the ALCS before losing to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series; two years later, the exact same thing happened, except replace Dodgers with Cincinnati Reds.
Only three teams have swept their way to the World Series since 1985, and they all lost. The other examples apply to the Royals in only the most flimsy ways, both because of the time that’s passed and the radically different circumstances of the era. It’s hard to even look at the records of those teams, because there are several times where the World Series saw two teams coming off sweeps meet in the same year.
So if there’s one conclusion to take from all this, it’s that the Royals’ recent winning streak doesn’t matter much. Teams with similar track records have seen things go both ways.
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