The best team in the majors gets a nice perk — and not much of a postseason guarantee.
The perk is home field throughout the playoffs. But many of these elite regular-season clubs have not stuck around the playoffs very long.
In the past 13 World Series following a 162-game season, the team with the majors’ best record won it all just three times: the 2018 Red Sox, 2016 Cubs and 2013 Red Sox. Only once in that time did the teams with the best record in each league meet — in 2013, when the Red Sox beat the Cardinals.
The Phillies went into the All-Star break with the majors’ best record — 3 ½ games better than the Guardians and, in the National League, 6 ½ games ahead of the Dodgers, who signed Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto and were projected as the team to beat.
