50 best MLB teams that didn’t win the World Series
It’s impossible to think of the best teams that didn’t win the World Series without thinking of the 1986 Boston Red Sox.
After winning the AL East with a record of 95-66, the Red Sox survived one of the most thrilling American League Championship Series in Major League history. Trailing three games to one after a 4-3, 11-inning loss in Game 4, the Sox beat the Angels 7-6 in 11 innings at Angels Stadium in Game 5 before sweeping the final two games in convincing fashion at Fenway Park.
Then, Boston rolled into Shea Stadium and took the first two games of the World Series from the New York Mets, who had steamrolled through 108 wins in the regular season and beat the Houston Astros in six games in the NLCS. However, the Mets fired back to take Games 3 and 4 in Boston before the Red Sox won Game 5 4-2. Just one win away from the franchise’s first World Series title since 1918, and with a two-run lead in the bottom of the tenth inning, the Red Sox lost Game 6 in stunning fashion thanks ultimately to an untimely error on a dribbler to first baseman Bill Buckner.
Buckner (18 HR, 102 RBI) was one of many offensive stars in ’86 for the Red Sox. Hall of Famers Wade Boggs (.357/.453/.486) and Jim Rice (.324/.380/.490, 20 HR, 110 RBI) did a lot of damage, as did Dwight Evans (26 HR, 97 RBI) and Don Baylor (31 HR, 94 RBI). And, of course, the pitching staff was led by Roger Clemens (24-4, 2.48) who not only won the first of seven Cy Young Awards, he was also named AL MVP.
Next: 1990 Oakland Athletics