Dodgers & MLB history of teams leading a best-of-7 series 3-1

The Dodgers lead the Mets three games to one in the National League Championship Series after winning the first two games at Citi Field in New York. Los Angeles has up to three chances to win the one game needed to win the pennant and advance to a fourth World Series in eight years.

Being up three games to one in a best-of-7 series is the second-biggest advantage a team can have, an enviable position of power for the leading team, no matter how much the stomach-churning October baseball makes you feel otherwise likes.

The League Championship Series has been around since 1969, but the first 16 seasons of this new extra round, necessitated by divisional play, were a best-of-five affair. In 1985, this round was changed to best-of-7, which was the same length as the World Series. Teams that lead this series by three games to one have a huge upper hand.

Teams that lead the LCS by three games to one have won 37 of 45 series (82.2 percent).

Counting the World Series, MLB teams that lead a best-of-7 series three games to one have won 79 of 93 series (84.9 percent).

Six other teams that were down 3-1 tied the series but lost Game 7. In other words, the team that was three games to one closed the series within six games 78.5 percent of the time away.

The Dodgers became the last MLB team to buck that trend, overcoming a 3-1 deficit during the 2020 NLCS and winning the final three straight games against the Braves to reach the World Series. If they can beat the Mets again in this series, it would be the Dodgers' first return to the Fall Classic since.

In the best-of-7 era (since 1985), the Dodgers have led the NLCS just three games in a row. That was against the Cubs in 2017, when LA won the first three games of that series, lost Game 4 at Wrigley Field, and then raged in Game 5 thanks to the power of Kiké Hernández, who hit three home runs.

He is Despite it By the way, it blooms in October.

In the World Series, the Dodgers twice led by three games to one. In 1959, their second year in Los Angeles, the Dodgers had a chance to defeat the White Sox at home at the Los Angeles Coliseum, but lost 1-0. 23-year-old Sandy Koufax suffered the unfortunate defeat. Two days later, the Dodgers tied the game in the sixth at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

In 1988, the Dodgers got home runs from Mickey Hatcher and Mike Davis to backup Orel Hershiser, completing one of the best two-month runs by any pitcher, to shut out the A's in Game 5.

The 2024 Dodgers need to win one more game to win the pennant. Your first chance to do so will be Friday afternoon in Game 5 against the Mets.

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