It would be bad enough for the Boston Red Sox’s season to end at the hands of their arch-rival, but there’s also a chance they could go into the record books with a loss on Thursday.
After defeating the New York Yankees in Game 1 of the American League Wild Card Series, the Red Sox were in the driver’s seat. They only needed one more win, even though they’d have to get it on the Yankees’ home field, to advance to the division series.
However, after a gut-wrenching 4-3 loss on Wednesday night, the Red Sox are suddenly trying to avoid becoming an unfortunate footnote. That is, if two other teams playing Thursday don’t beat them to the punch.
The Wild Card Series is still new to Major League Baseball, but the first three years eerily played out exactly the same. The first 12 teams to win Game 1 of the best-of-three format all went on to win the series. In fact, coming into this season, only two of those 12 series even went to a deciding third game.
That trend has reversed this year, as three of the four losers from Tuesday’s games evened up the series on Wednesday. Only the Los Angeles Dodgers advanced, meaning technically, teams who have won Game 1 are today 13-0 in advancing to the LDS.
The Red Sox play the last game of the night, so if the Detroit Tigers and Chicago Cubs both win, they’ll be in danger of breaking the streak of 15 straight teams advancing after winning Game 1. And being the second or third team to do it wouldn’t feel great either.
History is still on the Red Sox’s side, if you consider three years and change to be worthy of referencing as a sample size. But the momentum has undoubtedly swung the Yankees way, and the Red Sox will need to come out punching on Thursday to prevent the winter from arriving early.
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