April 10, 2025 • 12 mins
This podcast episode delves into the remarkable phenomenon of exceptional starts in Major League Baseball history, with a particular emphasis on teams that have achieved extraordinary beginnings to their seasons. We explore the 2023 Tampa Bay Rays, who commenced their season with an unprecedented 13-0 record, which ties for the best start in MLB history. In juxtaposition, we examine the 1982 Atlanta Braves and the 1987 Milwaukee Brewers, both of whom also began their campaigns with similar records yet faced varying outcomes in the postseason. Additionally, we reflect upon the 1984 Detroit Tigers and the 2018 Boston Red Sox, both of which not only excelled in their early games but also achieved significant success by winning their respective World Series. Ultimately, this episode invites listeners to consider the implications of these historical performances on the broader narrative of baseball excellence and championship aspirations.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome into this Is Baseball.
My name is Brandon Johnson.
Happy Thursday.
Thank you for tuning in today.
Real quick, if you didn'tcatch my last episode on Tuesday,
I did an episode covering someof the worst starts in Major League
Baseball history.
Just kind of looking at howthe Braves started their season and
where they fall in line withother teams in history and kind of
(00:20):
where those teams finished.
Today's episode is going to beon the opposite side of that, covering
some of the best starts in history.
The Dodgers had gotten off toan 8.0start in 2025.
Now, I know the Dodgers havecooled off a little bit.
They're 9 and 4 after starting 8.
0.
But but there's several teamsthat got off to similar starts as
(00:43):
the Dodgers over the years.
So I want to take a look andhighlight some of those teams that
had similar starts and wherethey ended up at the end of the season.
So let's get into this.
When I was preparing thisepisode, there was one team in recent
history that stuck outimmediately and that was the 2023
(01:04):
Tampa Bay Rays, who started 130, which tied a major League Baseball
record for consecutive wins tostart a Major league baseball season.
That is tied with the 1982Braves and 1987 brewers, which we
will get into them in a second.
But Tampa started 13 0, as Isaid, and they finished 99 and 63
(01:30):
in that season, which in anyother division they would have won
easily.
But unfortunately for Tampa,the Baltimore Orioles were better
and Baltimore won the divisionby two games.
They won 101 games in in 2023,forcing the Rays to play in the Wild
(01:53):
Card Series.
The Rays ended up losing inthe Wild Card Series to the eventual
World Series champion Texas Rangers.
So I guess if you're going tolose a series to a team early, you
might as well lose it to theteam that goes on and wins the whole
thing.
But let's hop over to thoseother two 13 or no teams that I was
(02:17):
talking about.
So the 1982 Atlanta Bravesstarted 13 0.
They won their division.
This was back when there wereonly two divisions.
So they won the NL West.
They went 89 and 73.
This was when Joe Tory wastheir manager.
They ended up getting swept inthe National League Championship
Series by the Cardinals.
(02:39):
This was back when the theChampionship series was only three
games.
It didn't go to four gamesuntil 1985.
And the Cardinals ended upbeating the Milwaukee Brewers.
Yes, the brewers were once inthe American League.
They beat the brewers in theWorld Series.
So so far the teams that havestarted off with a historic winning
(03:03):
streak, have at least made the playoffs.
Neither of them have advancedin the playoffs.
Like I said, Tampa lost in thewild card series, Atlanta lost in
the championship series.
There used to only be twoseries in the postseason, the championship
series and the World Series.
This was back when only thedivision winners and there were two
(03:26):
divisions, only the divisionwinners made the postseason.
But let's jump ahead to thethird team that started 13 0, the
1987 Milwaukee Brewers.
They finished the season 91and 71.
And you would think, oh, thatshould be enough to make the playoffs.
(03:49):
Unfortunately, they missed the playoffs.
They ended up finishing thirdin their division.
They were in the AL east atthe time and they finished behind
Detroit.
Detroit had 98 wins andToronto had 96 wins.
Detroit lost the championshipseries to the Twins, and the Twins
beat the Cardinals in 1987 forthe World Series.
(04:11):
So of the three teams that gotoff to that 130 start, two of them
made the postseason.
One of them still had a greatseason, but just based on the era
that they played in, 91 winswasn't going to be enough for you
to make the postseason.
You had, like I said, twoteams ahead of you that won more
games.
And there weren't.
(04:33):
There weren't three divisionslike there are now.
There weren't wild card teamsthat was either be the best in your
division or sit at home in October.
And we've even seen greatteams in the current era that have
great records that either missthe playoffs entirely because they
didn't win their division, orthey get the wild card and end up
(04:57):
losing.
I remember it was, I believe,in 2015 that the Cardinals, Cubs
and Pirates all had reallygreat seasons.
The Cardinals won the NationalLeague Central with 100 wins.
The Pirates took second at 98wins and the Cubs had 97 wins.
Pirates and Cubs had to playeach other in that at the time was
(05:21):
the one game play in gameplayoff game and Cubs ended up beating
the Pirates.
Cubs went all the way to the nlcs.
They lost to the Mets that year.
But it just goes to show likehow important winning your division
is because it's such anadvantage in that.
(05:41):
That scenario actually is whyI prefer the expansion in the new
wild card series that theyhave now.
You play a series all seasonlong and then all of a sudden you
make make the playoffs.
You're one of the two wildcard teams at the time and you have
to play essentially a game seven.
I, I don't think your seasonshould come down to that.
(06:02):
While there's been a Lot ofhistoric games.
And one of my all timefavorite games when the Royals hosted
the 2014 wild card gameagainst the A's and won that in extras
and then went on that bigwinning streak all the way into the
World Series.
So there is excitement there.
(06:23):
I just think when you play aseries all season long, you should
continue to play series in the playoffs.
So that's one of the positivesfor me in the current postseason
format.
Now got off on a tangentthere, but let's get back into some
(06:45):
of the best starts in league history.
So we've been spending a lotof time in the 80s in this episode
and we're going to continue todo that.
And now we're going to look atthe 1984 Detroit Tigers.
The Tigers started the season18 2.
They won the American Leagueeast that year.
(07:05):
They won 104 and 58.
They were 15 games ahead ofthe Toronto Blue Jays.
And on the other side, in theAmerican League west, the Royals
won that division.
They went 84 and 78.
So the American League outsideof the Detroit Tigers was kind of
just down as a whole that season.
(07:27):
So Detroit took full advantageof that.
They ended up sweeping theRoyals in the ALCS in three games.
And then they beat the SanDiego Padres in five games.
That was the first time thePadres had ever been to the World
Series.
And that's when the Tigerswere led by legendary manager Sparky
Anderson, Remember manager ofthe Big Red machine Cincinnati reds
(07:51):
during the 70s, 12 WorldSeries with those Reds teams.
And something really coolabout the 1984 Tiger Detroit Tigers
was their closer was WillieHernandez and he won not only the
Cy Young, but he also wonAmerican league MVP in 1984, which
(08:14):
is insane.
And a reliever winning eitherof those awards in today's game seems
completely impossible.
So got me curious when thelast time a reliever won Cy Young
and the last time thatHappened was in 2003 with Eric Gagne
(08:38):
with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
And then I was also curiousabout a reliever winning mvp.
When's the last time that happened?
And that last time that wasthe case was in 1992 when Dennis
Eckersley won MVP with Oakland.
(08:58):
Now, there have been startingpitchers recently that have won both
the Cy Young and mvp.
Justin Verlander and ClaytonKershaw have both accomplished that
feat in the last decade.
So for a starting pitcher,definitely something that's not unheard
(09:19):
of.
But a reliever winning eventhe Cy Young just sounds almost impossible
in today's game.
Let's move on to My final teamof today's episode and we're going
to jump back into some recenthistory here and we're going to look
(09:39):
at the 2018 Boston Red Sox.
So this was really the lasttime the Boston Red Sox were good.
They started their season 17and 3 and ended up finishing at 108
and 54.
(10:00):
They won the American Leagueeast by eight games.
The Yankees had 100 wins that season.
Boston and New York ended upplaying each other in the Division
series.
Boston beat them three gamesto one.
Then Boston played Houston.
Houston won 103 games that year.
They beat them four to one.
(10:21):
And then Boston took on theDodgers in the World Series and also
beat them 4 to 1.
Now there's a little bit ofcontroversy surrounding this 2018
Boston Red Sox team.
They were found to have usedvideo replay to steal signs during
that season, similar to howthe Houston Astros did their sign
(10:46):
ceiling scandal.
It didn't end up being aspolarizing as the Astros scandal
was.
But Alex Cora, who was and isthe manager of the Boston Red Sox,
was with the Houston astrosduring the 2017 season.
So I think he just picked upwhatever they did in Houston and
(11:09):
brought it over to Boston.
Ended up obviously being verysuccessful for, for them.
Alex Cora got suspended for aseason when all this came out and
now he's back with the team.
Now he's back with Boston.
But yeah, Boston won the WorldSeries that year over the Dodgers.
(11:31):
So unfortunately for the LosAngeles Dodgers and back to back
World Series, they wereplaying against two teams that cheated.
And like I said, the Bostonsituation wasn't as big of a deal
or it didn't seem like it wasas big of a deal as the Houston Astros
thing was.
I don't know if Boston did thewhole trash can thing or not like
(11:56):
the Astros did, but either wayyou had two teams cheating in back
to back seasons and, and bothof them winning World Series.
But, but Boston had anabsolutely stacked team.
Xander Bogarts, RaphaelDevers, Mookie Betts, who won American
League MVP that year.
(12:16):
And then your startingrotation consisted of Rick Por, David
Price, Chris Sale, Nate Evaldiwas in there as well.
And out in the bullpen, CraigKimbrell, Hector Velasquez.
I gotta give Joe Kelly a shoutout as well.
Just really good baseball teamin 2018 for the Red Sox.
(12:36):
So those are my teams that Iwanted to highlight in today's episode
that got off to hot starts.
So let's see where the Dodgersend up.
I know the Padres and Giantsare both off to hot starts as well,
so we can kind of payattention to them as well as the
season goes on.
But thank you for listening today.
I will see you next week.
Welcome into this Is Baseball.
My name is Brandon Johnson.
Happy Thursday.
Thank you for tuning in today.
Real quick, if you didn'tcatch my last episode on Tuesday,
I did an episode covering someof the worst starts in Major League
Baseball history.
Just kind of looking at howthe Braves started their season and
where they fall in line withother teams in history and kind of
(00:20):
where those teams finished.
Today's episode is going to beon the opposite side of that, covering
some of the best starts in history.
The Dodgers had gotten off toan 8.0start in 2025.
Now, I know the Dodgers havecooled off a little bit.
They're 9 and 4 after starting 8.
0.
But but there's several teamsthat got off to similar starts as
(00:43):
the Dodgers over the years.
So I want to take a look andhighlight some of those teams that
had similar starts and wherethey ended up at the end of the season.
So let's get into this.
When I was preparing thisepisode, there was one team in recent
history that stuck outimmediately and that was the 2023
(01:04):
Tampa Bay Rays, who started 130, which tied a major League Baseball
record for consecutive wins tostart a Major league baseball season.
That is tied with the 1982Braves and 1987 brewers, which we
will get into them in a second.
But Tampa started 13 0, as Isaid, and they finished 99 and 63
(01:30):
in that season, which in anyother division they would have won
easily.
But unfortunately for Tampa,the Baltimore Orioles were better
and Baltimore won the divisionby two games.
They won 101 games in in 2023,forcing the Rays to play in the Wild
(01:53):
Card Series.
The Rays ended up losing inthe Wild Card Series to the eventual
World Series champion Texas Rangers.
So I guess if you're going tolose a series to a team early, you
might as well lose it to theteam that goes on and wins the whole
thing.
But let's hop over to thoseother two 13 or no teams that I was
(02:17):
talking about.
So the 1982 Atlanta Bravesstarted 13 0.
They won their division.
This was back when there wereonly two divisions.
So they won the NL West.
They went 89 and 73.
This was when Joe Tory wastheir manager.
They ended up getting swept inthe National League Championship
Series by the Cardinals.
(02:39):
This was back when the theChampionship series was only three
games.
It didn't go to four gamesuntil 1985.
And the Cardinals ended upbeating the Milwaukee Brewers.
Yes, the brewers were once inthe American League.
They beat the brewers in theWorld Series.
So so far the teams that havestarted off with a historic winning
(03:03):
streak, have at least made the playoffs.
Neither of them have advancedin the playoffs.
Like I said, Tampa lost in thewild card series, Atlanta lost in
the championship series.
There used to only be twoseries in the postseason, the championship
series and the World Series.
This was back when only thedivision winners and there were two
(03:26):
divisions, only the divisionwinners made the postseason.
But let's jump ahead to thethird team that started 13 0, the
1987 Milwaukee Brewers.
They finished the season 91and 71.
And you would think, oh, thatshould be enough to make the playoffs.
(03:49):
Unfortunately, they missed the playoffs.
They ended up finishing thirdin their division.
They were in the AL east atthe time and they finished behind
Detroit.
Detroit had 98 wins andToronto had 96 wins.
Detroit lost the championshipseries to the Twins, and the Twins
beat the Cardinals in 1987 forthe World Series.
(04:11):
So of the three teams that gotoff to that 130 start, two of them
made the postseason.
One of them still had a greatseason, but just based on the era
that they played in, 91 winswasn't going to be enough for you
to make the postseason.
You had, like I said, twoteams ahead of you that won more
games.
And there weren't.
(04:33):
There weren't three divisionslike there are now.
There weren't wild card teamsthat was either be the best in your
division or sit at home in October.
And we've even seen greatteams in the current era that have
great records that either missthe playoffs entirely because they
didn't win their division, orthey get the wild card and end up
(04:57):
losing.
I remember it was, I believe,in 2015 that the Cardinals, Cubs
and Pirates all had reallygreat seasons.
The Cardinals won the NationalLeague Central with 100 wins.
The Pirates took second at 98wins and the Cubs had 97 wins.
Pirates and Cubs had to playeach other in that at the time was
(05:21):
the one game play in gameplayoff game and Cubs ended up beating
the Pirates.
Cubs went all the way to the nlcs.
They lost to the Mets that year.
But it just goes to show likehow important winning your division
is because it's such anadvantage in that.
(05:41):
That scenario actually is whyI prefer the expansion in the new
wild card series that theyhave now.
You play a series all seasonlong and then all of a sudden you
make make the playoffs.
You're one of the two wildcard teams at the time and you have
to play essentially a game seven.
I, I don't think your seasonshould come down to that.
(06:02):
While there's been a Lot ofhistoric games.
And one of my all timefavorite games when the Royals hosted
the 2014 wild card gameagainst the A's and won that in extras
and then went on that bigwinning streak all the way into the
World Series.
So there is excitement there.
(06:23):
I just think when you play aseries all season long, you should
continue to play series in the playoffs.
So that's one of the positivesfor me in the current postseason
format.
Now got off on a tangentthere, but let's get back into some
(06:45):
of the best starts in league history.
So we've been spending a lotof time in the 80s in this episode
and we're going to continue todo that.
And now we're going to look atthe 1984 Detroit Tigers.
The Tigers started the season18 2.
They won the American Leagueeast that year.
(07:05):
They won 104 and 58.
They were 15 games ahead ofthe Toronto Blue Jays.
And on the other side, in theAmerican League west, the Royals
won that division.
They went 84 and 78.
So the American League outsideof the Detroit Tigers was kind of
just down as a whole that season.
(07:27):
So Detroit took full advantageof that.
They ended up sweeping theRoyals in the ALCS in three games.
And then they beat the SanDiego Padres in five games.
That was the first time thePadres had ever been to the World
Series.
And that's when the Tigerswere led by legendary manager Sparky
Anderson, Remember manager ofthe Big Red machine Cincinnati reds
(07:51):
during the 70s, 12 WorldSeries with those Reds teams.
And something really coolabout the 1984 Tiger Detroit Tigers
was their closer was WillieHernandez and he won not only the
Cy Young, but he also wonAmerican league MVP in 1984, which
(08:14):
is insane.
And a reliever winning eitherof those awards in today's game seems
completely impossible.
So got me curious when thelast time a reliever won Cy Young
and the last time thatHappened was in 2003 with Eric Gagne
(08:38):
with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
And then I was also curiousabout a reliever winning mvp.
When's the last time that happened?
And that last time that wasthe case was in 1992 when Dennis
Eckersley won MVP with Oakland.
(08:58):
Now, there have been startingpitchers recently that have won both
the Cy Young and mvp.
Justin Verlander and ClaytonKershaw have both accomplished that
feat in the last decade.
So for a starting pitcher,definitely something that's not unheard
(09:19):
of.
But a reliever winning eventhe Cy Young just sounds almost impossible
in today's game.
Let's move on to My final teamof today's episode and we're going
to jump back into some recenthistory here and we're going to look
(09:39):
at the 2018 Boston Red Sox.
So this was really the lasttime the Boston Red Sox were good.
They started their season 17and 3 and ended up finishing at 108
and 54.
(10:00):
They won the American Leagueeast by eight games.
The Yankees had 100 wins that season.
Boston and New York ended upplaying each other in the Division
series.
Boston beat them three gamesto one.
Then Boston played Houston.
Houston won 103 games that year.
They beat them four to one.
(10:21):
And then Boston took on theDodgers in the World Series and also
beat them 4 to 1.
Now there's a little bit ofcontroversy surrounding this 2018
Boston Red Sox team.
They were found to have usedvideo replay to steal signs during
that season, similar to howthe Houston Astros did their sign
(10:46):
ceiling scandal.
It didn't end up being aspolarizing as the Astros scandal
was.
But Alex Cora, who was and isthe manager of the Boston Red Sox,
was with the Houston astrosduring the 2017 season.
So I think he just picked upwhatever they did in Houston and
(11:09):
brought it over to Boston.
Ended up obviously being verysuccessful for, for them.
Alex Cora got suspended for aseason when all this came out and
now he's back with the team.
Now he's back with Boston.
But yeah, Boston won the WorldSeries that year over the Dodgers.
(11:31):
So unfortunately for the LosAngeles Dodgers and back to back
World Series, they wereplaying against two teams that cheated.
And like I said, the Bostonsituation wasn't as big of a deal
or it didn't seem like it wasas big of a deal as the Houston Astros
thing was.
I don't know if Boston did thewhole trash can thing or not like
(11:56):
the Astros did, but either wayyou had two teams cheating in back
to back seasons and, and bothof them winning World Series.
But, but Boston had anabsolutely stacked team.
Xander Bogarts, RaphaelDevers, Mookie Betts, who won American
League MVP that year.
(12:16):
And then your startingrotation consisted of Rick Por, David
Price, Chris Sale, Nate Evaldiwas in there as well.
And out in the bullpen, CraigKimbrell, Hector Velasquez.
I gotta give Joe Kelly a shoutout as well.
Just really good baseball teamin 2018 for the Red Sox.
(12:36):
So those are my teams that Iwanted to highlight in today's episode
that got off to hot starts.
So let's see where the Dodgersend up.
I know the Padres and Giantsare both off to hot starts as well,
so we can kind of payattention to them as well as the
season goes on.
But thank you for listening today.
I will see you next week.
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