10 Greatest MLB Pennant/Divisional Races of All Time

A look back at the last 75+ years of white-knuckled pennant and division races from both leagues.

Last month we published the story of the “10 MLB Teams with the Worst Collapses in History.” Now we’ll review the 10 Greatest MLB Pennant/Divisional Races of All Time. They are the races in MLB history that stand the test of time. They are fondly remembered not just by the fans of the teams involved but by all baseball fans. I placed them in chronological order for historic context.

A couple of points before we begin. I attempted to have an even distribution of races between the two leagues, and I succeeded in that goal. Some of the races that would have been on this list have already appeared in the Worst Collapses article, so they were not included. They are the following races: 1951 National League, 1964 National League, 1978 American League East, and 1995 American League West.

A Couple of Old-Time Classic Races

10. 1948 American League (AL)

Four teams battled it out in this race, which saw the winner go on to be crowned World Champs. The Boston Red Sox, Cleveland Indians, New York Yankees, and the Philadelphia Athletics were in a virtual tie for first place as the season rolled into August. 

On Sept. 23, the Indians, Red Sox, and Yankees were all tied at 91-56 with seven games remaining. From that point, the Yankees went 3-4, and the Red Sox and Cleveland ended 5-2, forcing the first-ever one-game playoff.

Cleveland would defeat Boston 8-3 to clinch the title. Future Hall of Famers in this race included Joe DiMaggio (Yankees), Ted Williams (Red Sox), Larry Doby (Indians), and Athletics manager Connie Mack.

9. 1956 National League (NL)

The first of the National League races on the list saw the Brooklyn Dodgers, Cincinnati Redlegs, and Milwaukee Braves battle it out. In this race, each team spent the entire season within five games of each other. 

In early September, the Dodgers were in second place, 2.5 games behind the Braves, but they faced a brutal schedule that would see them play three doubleheaders in three days. But rookie pitcher Don Drysdale would come to the rescue with a clutch performance in three of the six games. Brooklyn would go 3-3 through this to stay in contention.

Dodgers Pitcher Sal “The Barber” Maglie shut out the Braves on Sept. 11, which allowed his team to tie Milwaukee for first place. Maglie went 6-1 in September, and Brooklyn would sweep the Pittsburgh Pirates in the final weekend to edge the Braves by one game. Notables in this race were Jackie Robinson (Dodgers), Eddie Mathews (Braves), and Frank Robinson (Redlegs).

Two 60’s Classics

8. 1962 National League

In one of the most dramatic pennant races of all time, the Los Angeles Dodgers led the San Francisco Giants by four games with seven left to play. One week later, on the final day of the regular season, the Dodgers were up by one game, but on that day they would fall to the St. Louis Cardinals 1-0. 

Meanwhile, the Giants defeated the Houston Colt 45s 2-1 on an eighth-inning Willie Mays home run. This left the teams tied at 101-61. So, the clubs entered into a best-of-three tiebreaker series to decide the NL Champion. In Game 1 in San Francisco, the Giants would get to Dodgers’ ace Sandy Koufax early on their way to an 8-0 blowout win.

The series shifted to Los Angeles for the final two games, and in a barnburner, Los Angeles evened the series with an 8-7 victory. Finally, on October 3, in the pivotal Game 3, the Giants scored four runs in the ninth inning for a come-from-behind pennant-clinching win. Some of the greats involved in this race were Mays and Willie McCovey for the Giants and Koufax and Don Drysdale for the Dodgers.

7. 1967 American League

In this race, four teams (the Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers, Minnesota Twins, and the Chicago White Sox) were mathematically in contention for the pennant with a week to go. At that point, the Red Sox had only four games to play, the White Sox and Twins had five each, and the Tigers had six.

During that period, the Red Sox went 2-2, the White Sox lost all five games, the Twins went 1-4, and the Tigers finished 3-3. When the smoke cleared, they had beaten the Tigers and Twins by a game and the White Sox by three. 

This race saw 28 lead changes throughout the season. Despite losing the World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games, the Red Sox realized their “Impossible Dream.” Heroes for each team included Carl Yastrzemski (Red Sox), Al Kaline (Tigers), Harmon Killebrew (Twins), and Tommy John (White Sox).

Classic Races from Each League

6. 1972 American League East

This is another of the races where multiple teams were in contention for the majority of the season. As the calendar turned to September, the Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers, and New York Yankees were only separated by two games. With less than a week to play, the Orioles and Yankees were eliminated, narrowing the field to two.

The Red Sox, who were up by half a game, traveled to Detroit to play the Tigers in the final three games of the season. In Game 1 of the series, the Tigers’ Mickey Lolich struck out 15 Red Sox hitters to lead Detroit to a 4-1 victory. And in Game 161 of the season, the Tigers would clinch the AL East title with a come-from-behind 3-1 win.

Boston came out on top 4-1 in the season’s final game, and the regular season ended with Detroit atop the division by a half a game. Legends associated with this race included Bill Freehan of the Tigers, Reggie Smith for the Red Sox, Jim Palmer from the Orioles, and Thurman Munson of the Yankees.

5. 1980 National League East

The lead changed 30 times in this race. The Philadelphia Phillies found hemselves six games back of the Montreal Expos on Aug. 10. But the Phillies went 16-8 from that point until Sept. 4 to take a one-game lead over the Expos.

With the two teams tied in the standings, it all came down to a head-to-head series between the two clubs in Montreal on the last weekend of the season. On the strength of a sixth-inning Mike Schmidt solo home run, the Phillies would eke out a 2-1 victory to go up by a game.

Montreal would return the favor, defeating Philadelphia 6-4, leaving the rubber game of the series to decide who would win the NL East crown. And in a true hero’s moment, Schmidt hit a two-run homer off of Stan Bahnsen in the 11th inning to send the Phillies to the NLCS. Stars of this race included Andre Dawson and Gary Carter (Expos), and both Schmidt and Pete Rose (Phillies). 

Two Races That Went to the Wire

4. 1993 National League West

In one of the greatest come-from-behind races of all time, the two-time defending NL Champion Atlanta Braves were 9.5 games behind the first-place San Francisco Giants on Aug. 7. But they went 26-5 to take over first place on Sept. 11. However, the Giants were not completely buried. 

They went 14-2 to tie Atlanta entering the final day of the season. But the Braves beat the Rockies 5-3, putting the Giants in a must-win situation. Unfortunately for San Francisco, they were demolished by the Dodgers 12-1 to extinguish their playoff chances. 

This was the last MLB season before wild-card teams were included in the playoff format. So even though the Giants won 103 games, they were left without a playoff berth. Among the standouts in this race were Ron Gant and Greg Maddux for the Braves and Barry Bonds and Will Clark from the Giants.

3. 2009 American League Central

The Detroit Tigers held first place in the AL Central all alone from May 16 until Oct. 2. The hard-charging Minnesota Twins were still seven games out on Sept. 6. However, the Tigers lost 15 of their last 26 games, and the Twins won 16 of their final 20 to force a one-game playoff.

This would be the swan song regular-season baseball game at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. Detroit led early, but Minnesota stormed back to take a one-run lead in the seventh inning. The Tigers would tie it up in the eighth, forcing the game into extra innings.

Each team scored a run in the 10th, and it seemed like neither club wanted to go home that day. But the Twins won he game in the bottom of the 12th on singles by game substitutes Carlos Gomez and Alexi Casilla. Leading these teams were Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau for the Twins and Miguel Cabrera and Justin Verlander for the Tigers.

Recent Nail Biters

2. 2011 National League East

This is only one of the races on this list that detail a wild-card chase: the Atlanta Braves had a three-game lead over the St. Louis Cardinals with just games left in the season. But the Braves’ bats went silent as they scored only seven runs in losing all five games. 

That included a back-breaking 13-inning loss to the division winners, the Philadelphia Phillies, who had already clinched home-field advantage a week before and had no reason to care about that game.

While the Braves were falling apart, the Cardinals steamed ahead, going 4-1 down the stretch, clinching their Wild Card spot with an 8-0 victory over the Houston Astros on the final day of the regular season. Heroics in this race were provided by Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday (Cardinals) and Freddie Freeman and Chipper Jones (Braves).

1. 2025 American League East

The New York Yankees had a seven-game lead on the Toronto Blue Jays in the AL East on May 28. But they went into a summertime slump, going 18-29 from June 13 to Aug. 5. This included seven head-to-head games at Toronto’s Rogers Centre in July. 

Toronto beat New York in six of the seven games moving them into first place in the division. The Blue Jays lead was five games on Sept. 16. However, the Yankees would go 10-1 from then until season’s end when they managed to pull even with the Jays.

But because the Yankees lost the season series to Toronto (5-8), the Blue Jays won the tiebreaker and proceeded to the playoffs. Fans of New York rooted for Aaron Judge and Max Fried while Toronto fans cheered for Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette. 

In Closing

Did reading this list bring you tears of joy or tears of sadness? Perhaps a little of both? Baseball can take you to the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Perhaps that is why we are so passionate about the game.