Since the first World Series was played between the American League’s Boston Americans and the National League’s Pittsburgh Pirates, 21 teams have suffered from baseball’s shutout blues.
The Boston Americans won the nine-game series 5-3 in 1903 to become the first world champions, and soon thereafter, Boston changed its name to the Red Sox.
Since the first pitch was thrown in a World Series game, 21 teams have suffered sweeps to go home empty-handed after dropping four games in a row.
The first World Series that a sweep took place was in 1907. The Chicago Cubs defeated the Detroit Tigers.
During the 117 World Series that have been played, the New York Yankees have won more than any other team, triumphing in 27 of the 40 World Series in which the team has competed, including inflicting the baseball shutout blues on other teams during six consecutive World Series in which the Yankees completed.
Against the New York Giants in 1922 the Yankees learned what it was like to suffer the baseball shutout blues after the New York Giants sent them home across town after a 4-0 beating.
However, the New York Yankees shut out the following teams: Pittsburgh Pirates, 1927; St. Louis Cardinals, 1928; Chicago Cubs, 1932 and 1938; Cincinnati Reds, 1939; and Philadelphia Phillies, 1950.
The Yankees suffered the baseball shutout blues again in 1963 when the Los Angeles Dodgers won four in a row and again in 1976 at the hands of the Cincinnati Reds.
Shedding the baseball shutout blues, the Yankees were back in top form by 1998 when the San Diego Padres fell prey to the Bronx Bombers 4-0. After repeating the next season as American League champions, the Yankees defeated the Atlanta Braves 4-0 in 1999.
Other teams that have inflicted the baseball shutout blues are as follows: Boston Braves 4-0 vs. the Philadelphia Athletics in 1914; New York Giants 4-0-1 over the Yankees in 1922 and New York Giants over Cleveland Indians in 1954.
The Baltimore Orioles trounced the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1966 in four games, and the Oakland Athletics shut out the San Francisco Giants 4-0 in 1989. Ironically, the very next season, the Cincinnati Reds handed the Oakland Athletics four straight losses.
In 2004, the Boston Red Sox sent the St. Louis Cardinals packing after four games, and the very next year, the Chicago White Sox whipped the Houston Astros 4-0, the team competing against the Atlanta Braves in the 2021 World Series.
In 2007, the Boston Red Sox crushed the Colorado Rockies 4-0, and the last time a 4-0 shutout defeat was handed to an MLB team was in 2012 when the San Francisco Giants shut down the Detroit Tigers 4-0.
Oddly enough, the New York Yankees have been on the winning end of eight shutouts while losing three times by being swept. The 11 times the Yankees wound up being swept or sweeping opponents represents more than 50 percent of the total times the World Series has ended in one team sweeping the other.
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