List of World Series sweeps

For a complete list of MLB playoff sweeps, see List of Major League Baseball postseason sweeps.

The Boston Braves completed the first official sweep in MLB history, beating the Philadelphia Athletics in the 1914 World Series by winning four straight games and losing none.

In the World Series, a sweep refers to a Major League Baseball (MLB) team winning four straight games and losing none in a best-of-seven format.

There have been 19 sweeps in World Series history. The American League has been responsible for thirteen of the sweeps, with the New York Yankees account for more than half of those, with a record eight. The National League is responsible for the remaining six sweeps, with the New York / San Francisco Giants and the Cincinnati Reds each achieving two.^[1]

The first sweep is credited to the 1914 "Miracle" Boston Braves who defeated the 1914 Philadelphia Athletics in four straight games. The most recent sweep occurred in the 2012 World Series, when the San Francisco Giants defeated the Detroit Tigers.^[2]

List of sweeps

Key

	National League team (NL)
	American League team (AL)

Year	Winning team	Manager	Losing team	Manager	Series MVP	Ref.
1914	Boston Braves	George Stallings	Philadelphia Athletics	Connie Mack	—	[3]
1927	New York Yankees	Miller Huggins	Pittsburgh Pirates	Donie Bush	—	[4]
1928	New York Yankees		St. Louis Cardinals	Bill McKechnie	—	[5]
1932	New York Yankees	Joe McCarthy	Chicago Cubs	Charlie Grimm	—	[6]
1938	New York Yankees		Chicago Cubs	Gabby Hartnett	—	[7]
1939	New York Yankees		Cincinnati Reds	Bill McKechnie	—	[8]
1950	New York Yankees	Casey Stengel	Philadelphia Phillies	Eddie Sawyer	—	[9]
1954	New York Giants	Leo Durocher	Cleveland Indians	Al López	—	[10]
1963	Los Angeles Dodgers	Walter Alston	New York Yankees	Ralph Houk	Sandy Koufax	[11]
1966	Baltimore Orioles	Hank Bauer	Los Angeles Dodgers	Walter Alston	Frank Robinson	[12]
1976	Cincinnati Reds	Sparky Anderson	New York Yankees	Billy Martin	Johnny Bench	[13]
1989	Oakland Athletics	Tony La Russa	San Francisco Giants	Roger Craig	Dave Stewart	[14]
1990	Cincinnati Reds	Lou Piniella	Oakland Athletics	Tony La Russa	José Rijo	[15]
1998	New York Yankees	Joe Torre	San Diego Padres	Bruce Bochy	Scott Brosius	[16]
1999	New York Yankees		Atlanta Braves	Bobby Cox	Mariano Rivera	[17]
2004	Boston Red Sox	Terry Francona	St. Louis Cardinals	Tony La Russa	Manny Ramirez	[18]
2005	Chicago White Sox	Ozzie Guillén	Houston Astros^[N]	Phil Garner	Jermaine Dye	[19]
2007	Boston Red Sox	Terry Francona	Colorado Rockies	Clint Hurdle	Mike Lowell	[20]
2012	San Francisco Giants	Bruce Bochy	Detroit Tigers	Jim Leyland	Pablo Sandoval	[21]

Disputed

There is a dispute as to whether the following World Series can be considered sweeps as, in both cases, while the team did win four games and lost none, each series had a tied game. A number of sources do not recognize them as official sweeps while others list them as such.^[22][23]

Year	Winning team	Manager	Series result	Losing team	Manager	Ref.
1907	Chicago Cubs	Frank Chance	4–0–(1)	Detroit Tigers	Hugh Jennings	[24]
1922	New York Giants	John McGraw	4–0–(1)	New York Yankees	Miller Huggins	[25]

Sweeps by franchise

The New York Yankees have completed the most numbers of sweeps in MLB history, with eight. The New York / San Francisco Giants, Cincinnati Reds, and Boston Red Sox are tied at second with two each. To date, the Red Sox are the only team with multiple sweeps to have never been swept themselves.

The most times a team has been swept is two, with four teams "earning" the distinction: Chicago Cubs, Philadelphia / Oakland Athletics, New York Yankees, St. Louis Cardinals. Of those teams, the Cubs and the Cardinals have never completed a sweep themselves.

Franchise	No. of sweeps achieved	No. of sweeps by opponent
New York Yankees	8	2
Boston Red Sox	2	0
New York / San Francisco Giants	2	1
Cincinnati Reds	2	1
St. Louis Browns / Baltimore Orioles	1	0
Brooklyn / Los Angeles Dodgers	1	1
Boston / Milwaukee / Atlanta Braves	1	1
Philadelphia / Kansas City / Oakland Athletics	1	2
Chicago White Sox	0	1
Cleveland Guardians	0	1
Houston Astros	0	1
San Diego Padres	0	1
Philadelphia Phillies	0	1
Pittsburgh Pirates	0	1
Detroit Tigers	0	1
Colorado Rockies	0	1
Chicago Cubs	0	2
St. Louis Cardinals	0	2
Los Angeles Angels	0	0
Arizona Diamondbacks	0	0
Seattle Mariners	0	0
Texas Rangers	0	0
Montreal Expos / Washington Nationals	0	0
Kansas City Royals	0	0
Miami Marlins	0	0
Milwaukee Brewers	0	0
Washington Senators / Minnesota Twins	0	0
New York Mets	0	0
Tampa Bay Rays	0	0
Toronto Blue Jays	0	0

Instances where a sweep was prevented

In the 25 times teams have taken a 3-0 World Series lead, the opponent has forced a Game 5 four times.^[26] No team which has forced a World Series Game 5 has went on force a Game 6, let alone complete a comeback, i.e. a "reverse sweep."^[27]

Year	Winning team	Manager	Series result	Losing team	Manager	Ref.
1910	Philadelphia Athletics	Connie Mack	4–1	Chicago Cubs	Frank Chance	[28]
1937	New York Yankees	Joe McCarthy	4–1	New York Giants	Bill Terry	[29]
1970	Baltimore Orioles	Earl Weaver	4–1	Cincinnati Reds	Sparky Anderson	[30]
2024	Los Angeles Dodgers	Dave Roberts	4–1	New York Yankees	Aaron Boone	[31]

See also

• List of World Series champions
  • List of Major League Baseball game sevens
• List of teams that have overcome 3–0 series deficits

Notes

• ^N The Astros were in the National League from 1962 to 2012, after which they moved to the American League.

References

1. DeRosa, Theo. "MLB World Series Sweeps". MLB.com. Retrieved October 30, 2024.
2. Schulman, Henry (October 28, 2012). "SF Giants win World Series". San Francisco Chronicle.
3. "1914 World Series: Boston Braves over Philadelphia Athletics (4-0)". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
4. "1927 World Series: New York Yankees over Pittsburgh Pirates (4-0)". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
5. "1928 World Series: New York Yankees over St. Louis Cardinals (4-0)". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
6. "1932 World Series: New York Yankees over Chicago Cubs (4-0)". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
7. "1938 World Series: New York Yankees over Chicago Cubs (4-0)". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
8. "1939 World Series: New York Yankees over Cincinnati Reds (4-0)". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
9. "1950 World Series: New York Yankees over Philadelphia Phillies (4-0)". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
10. "1954 World Series: New York Giants over Cleveland Indians (4-0)". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
11. "1963 World Series: Los Angeles Dodgers over New York Yankees (4-0)". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
12. "1966 World Series: Baltimore Orioles over Los Angeles Dodgers (4-0)". Baseball-Reference.com.
13. "1976 World Series: Cincinnati Reds over New York Yankees (4-0)". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
14. "1989 World Series: Oakland Athletics over San Francisco Giants (4-0)". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
15. "1990 World Series: Cincinnati Reds over Oakland Athletics (4-0)". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
16. "1998 World Series: New York Yankees over San Diego Padres (4-0)". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
17. "1999 World Series: New York Yankees over Atlanta Braves (4-0)". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
18. "2004 World Series: Boston Red Sox over St. Louis Cardinals (4-0)". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
19. "2005 World Series: Chicago White Sox over Houston Astros (4-0)". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
20. "2007 World Series Boston Red Sox over Colorado Rockies (4-0)". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
21. "2012 World Series: San Francisco Giants over Detroit Tigers (4-0)". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
22. "How many sweeps have there been in the World Series?". ESPN. October 30, 2024. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
23. Suggs, David (October 29, 2024). "World Series sweep history: Full list of every MLB team to be swept in Fall Classic". The Sporting News.
24. "1907 World Series: Chicago Cubs over Detroit Tigers (4-0-1)". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
25. "1922 World Series: New York Giants over New York Yankees (4-0-1)". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
26. Gardner, Steve (October 30, 2024). "Yankees look to rally from 3-0 deficit: How many MLB teams have done it in playoffs?". USA Today.
27. Gavin, Mike (October 29, 2024). "Has a team ever come back from being down 3-0 in the World Series?". NBC New York.
28. "1910 World Series: Philadelphia Athletics over Chicago Cubs (4-1)". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
29. "1937 World Series: New York Yankees over New York Giants (4-1)". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
30. "1970 World Series: Baltimore Orioles over Cincinnati Reds (4-1)". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
31. "2024 World Series: Los Angeles Dodgers over New York Yankees (4-1)". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 17, 2024.

External links

• World Series Sweeps at Baseball Almanac