The Cubs need to win three straight in their division series against the Brewers to avoid being eliminated from 2025 postseason play.
Difficult? Yes. Impossible? Of course not, any time a team takes the
field in a postseason game it can win.
And in fact, 10 teams have accomplished this feat, being down 2-0 and on the brink of elimination in a best-of-five postseason series, only to come back and win the series. That’s 10 of 90 such series, or 11.1 percent. So, yes, I’m saying there’s a chance.
Here they are, in chronological order.
1981 NLDS: Dodgers defeat Astros 3-2
In the 1981 “split season,” there were literally “division series,” as each of the four divisions had two teams make the postseason, so this was sort of a NL West playoff.
The Dodgers had home field, so the series began in Houston, where the Astros won the first two games, including an 11-inning, 1-0 win in Game 2. The Astros trailed 2-1 in Game 4 with the tying run on base in the ninth, but José Cruz popped up to end it. Jerry Reuss threw a five-hit complete-game shutout to win Game 5 and the series for the Dodgers.
1982 ALCS: Brewers defeat Angels 3-2
The league championship series were best-of-five from their inception through 1984, and teams that had home field had the last three games at home. Remember that the team with the better record didn’t necessarily have home field back then — it was alternated between divisions and leagues.
The Brewers lost the first two games at Anaheim and led Game 3 5-0 in the eighth when the Angels scored three times and had the tying run at the plate. But Doug DeCinces grounded out to end the inning and the Brewers won that game. They won Game 4 8-3 and trailed 3-2 in the seventh inning of Game 5 when Cecil Cooper delivered a baes-loaded two-run single and Milwaukee won 4-3 to make it to their only World Series to date.
It would take 20 more years before the Angels would get to a World Series.
1984 NLCS: Padres defeat Cubs 3-2
You surely know all the details of this one so I won’t belabor it. The only thing I will never understand is why these teams didn’t get a travel day after Game 2 at Wrigley. They had to fly 2,000 miles and change two time zones and play the next day in San Diego. The Padres, of course, were at home and played like it; the Cubs came out flat and lost 7-1. Then they got an off day before the Padres won the last two games.
The 1984 ALCS got a travel day between cities even though it’s only a two-hour flight from Kansas City to Detroit and one time zone difference. You might say, “Well, TV wanted to have a game every day,” and sure, I get that, but why not have the shorter flight play the next night and give the longer flight the off day?
Would it have mattered? We’ll never know, of course. But to this day 41 years later it still doesn’t make any sense.
The rest of these series are all division series.
1995 ALDS: Mariners defeat Yankees 3-2
The Mariners trailed the Angels in the AL West by 12.5 games on Aug. 15, but finished on a 27-16 run while the Angels went 14-28 and the division ended up tied. The Mariners won a tiebreaker game, then the Yankees won the first two games in New York, taking Game 2 on a two-run walkoff homer by Jim Leyritz in the 15th (!) inning.
Seattle won three in a row at home to take the series, including this famous walkoff hit by Edgar Martinez:
All of the above series gave the last three games at home to the team that had home field. The ones below were in the now-familiar 2-2-1 format for a best-of-five series, with one exception.
1999 ALDS: Red Sox defeat Indians 3-2
Boston lost the first two on the road, then won a pair at Fenway Park. Game 4 was a 23-7 blowout, which stands to this day as the only postseason game where a team scored 20 or more runs.
That must have done something to the Cleveland pitching staff, because they lost Game 5 to the Red Sox at home by a 12-8 score.
2001 ALDS: Yankees defeat Athletics 3-2
The road team won the first four games of this series, the A’s going up two games to none at Yankee Stadium, then losing a pair at home, including Game 3 1-0 when Derek Jeter made this throw to the plate to get Jeremy Giambi:
Game 5 was back in New York and the Yankees took the game 5-3 and went on to the ALCS, which they also won.
2003 ALDS: Red Sox over Athletics
Once again, the A’s were one win from the ALCS, this time winning the first two at home. Trot Nixon’s two-run walkoff homer in the 11th won Game 3 for Boston and then they won a pair of one-run games, 5-4 in Game 4 at Boston and 4-3 in Game 5 in Oakland, where the A’s had the bases loaded with two out when Terrence Long struck out to end the game and the series.
2012 NLDS: Giants over Reds
Dusty Baker’s Reds took the first two games in Dusty’s old park in San Francisco, then went to extras in Game 3 in Cincinnati, losing it in the 10th on an error. The Giants won Game 4 and 5 at GABP with Sergio Romo holding on for the save in Game 5 with the tying run on base with one out in the bottom of the ninth
This series was played in a 2-3 format because the Wild Card Game had been added to the postseason somewhat late in the season.
2015 ALDS: Blue Jays over Rangers
Back to the 2-2-1 format, the road team again won the first four games, including a 14-inning Rangers win in Game 2. In Game 5, the Jays trailed 3-2 heading to the bottom of the seventh. A single by Josh Donaldson scored Kevin Pillar to tie the game and with two runners on, José Bautista came to the plate:
Even now, 10 years later, that’s probably the most famous bat flip in MLB history.
2017 ALDS: Yankees over Indians 3-2
Cleveland took the first two games at home, including Game 2 in 13 innings on a walkoff single by Yan Gomes. Then the Yankees returned the favor by taking a pair at Yankee Stadium, including 1-0 in Game 3 when Cleveland left the tying and lead runs stranded in the ninth. The Yankees completed the comeback by winning Game 5 in Cleveland.
So it’s been done before — not often, but it has happened, and it’s been done by teams winning games at home and also on the road (as the Cubs would have to do to take this series).
No NL team has ever come back from a two-games-to-none deficit in a best-of-five series where they’d have had to win Game 5 on the road.
BCB’s JohnW53 reminds us that the Cubs have won three straight in four previous postseason series, and four straight once:
2003 NLCS, Games 2-4 vs. Marlins (home, road, road)
2015 NLDS, Games 2-4 vs. Cardinals (road, home, home)
2016 NLCS, Games 4-6 vs. Dodgers (road, road, home)
2016 WS, Games 5-7 vs. Indians (home, road, road)All but the first won the series.
The Cubs won four straight in the 1907 World Series vs. the Tigers after the first game ended in a tie: Games 2-5 (home, home, road, road).
Can the 2025 Cubs do it? It would be great to have this year’s Chicago Cubs join the list of 10 teams that have come back from the situation the Cubs now find themselves in.
