Most Consecutive 1-Run Losses (Not Counting Wins)

In my last post

, I looked at teams who had gone the longest without winning a game by more than 1 run. In this post, I’ll look at the reverse: teams that have gone the longest without losing by multiple runs.

As in the last post, I’m going to measure this in two ways: first, the most consecutive 1-run losses (not counting wins); and second, the most consecutive games without a multi-run loss (wins or 1-run losses).

First up, let’s look at all the teams in MLB history (in the boxscore era, since 1919) who have had at least 8 losses in a row that were by 1 run:

The 1967 Red Sox were a very good team, finishing 92-70 and making the World Series (which they lost, of course, to the Cardinals). They could have easily had an even better record, though; in that midsummer stretch of 22 games, they lost 10 games by 1 run. In that period, they outscored their opponents 100 to 60, a run differential more normally associated with a 16-6 record rather than their actual 12-10 mark.

At the end of the stretch, they were in 4th place, 6 games out of 1st. Not long after, though, they won 10 straight games (all by multiple runs–tied for the 7th-longest such streak in history) and never looked back. Overall, they went 52-32 after breaking out of their 1-run loss slump, edging out the Twins on the last day of the season for the division title.

The 1988 Braves were another story altogether. They suffered through one of the most painful ends to a season that I can imagine. In their last 11 games, all against the Astros or the Reds, they won just twice. What’s worse, all 9 of those losses were by 1 run. No team has ever crammed so many close losses into such a small span of time. At one point, they lost 6 games in a row, all by 1 run–the 2nd-longest such streak ever. The team would finish an abysmal 54-106, but its fortunes would turn around a bit a few years later.

Next up, the teams to have gone the longest number of total games without losing by multiple runs:

By and large, these teams were very successful, which makes sense since most of them made this list because they went on long stretches without many losses. In fact, all of the top 9 teams on the list finished in 1st place. Oddly, though, only the ’55 Dodgers won the World Series, and their opponents (the Yankees) are also on the list. The list even includes the notorious 1919 “Black Sox” who were convicted of throwing the Series.

This list is weighted disproportionately toward the pre-expansion era, and I think I know why: it was much easier to maintain a dominant team in that era. As baseball expanded and became a bigger business, the game exhibited much greater parity. Free agency, revenue sharing, the amateur draft–all these developments came in the expansion era, and all curtailed teams’ abilities to maintain extended periods of dominance at the expense of other teams. I think that’s why you see only 5 teams from the expansion era on the list, and none since 1995.