A 10-game slide can empty a clubhouse in a hurry, but history says it does not always bury a season. Five postseason clubs have survived a losing streak of at least 10 games, and each of them also put together a winning streak of 10 or more games that same year. The 2026 Cubs are the newest addition, while the Phillies still have a chance to join them if they secure a Wild Card berth after their early-season 10-game skid.
Postseason teams that climbed out of long slides
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1951 New York Giants — 11 straight losses: The Giants opened poorly, falling to 2-12 after an 11-game losing streak in April. They found another gear in August, winning 16 consecutive games to remain in the National League race with Brooklyn.
New York did not pull even for first place until its next-to-last regular-season game. The Giants and Dodgers finished tied, forcing a three-game playoff for the NL flag. Bobby Thomson ended the deciding game with the walk-off homer remembered as the “Shot Heard ’Round the World,” sending the Giants to the World Series. They lost the Fall Classic to the Yankees in six games.
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1982 Atlanta Braves — 11 straight losses: Atlanta had set the early-season pace by becoming the first club since 1900 to begin 13-0. Four months later, with a healthy NL West cushion already built, the Braves endured an 11-game skid.
They started that stretch seven games ahead of the second-place Dodgers and finished it in second. The division tightened dramatically: Los Angeles was first, San Francisco was fourth, and only six games separated the four clubs. Atlanta recovered well enough to take the division, though the Cardinals swept the Braves in the NLCS.
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2017 Los Angeles Dodgers — 11 straight losses: Los Angeles narrowly avoided something even uglier. One run on Sept. 1 stood between the Dodgers and a 17-game losing streak heading into the postseason. During the ensuing 11 straight defeats, every one of their four division opponents beat them.
The timing protected them. When the skid began on Sept. 2, the Dodgers led Arizona by 16 games. By its end, the margin was down to nine with 18 games remaining. Los Angeles had already posted winning streaks of 10 and 11 earlier that summer, held on comfortably, and captured its first National League pennant since 1988.
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2025 Cleveland Guardians — 10 straight losses: Cleveland’s 10-game losing streak crossed from June into July, and the club later went 1-9 over another difficult 10-game August stretch. The Guardians were still below .500 after 135 games, making their comeback feel unlikely.
Then came a September surge built around sharp “Guards Ball.” Cleveland won 19 of its last 23 games, caught Detroit, and claimed the AL Central. It became the fifth team to make the playoffs after remaining under .500 that late in a season, joining the 2009 Twins, 2008 Dodgers, 2005 Padres and 1973 Mets.
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2026 Chicago Cubs — 10 straight losses: Chicago’s May collapse was especially jarring because the club had been rolling through the opening six weeks. The Cubs went 29-16 over their first 45 games and recorded two separate 10-game winning streaks before dropping 10 in a row in mid-May.
That combination placed Chicago alongside the 2017 Dodgers as the only teams in Major League history to produce two 10-game winning streaks and a 10-game losing streak in the same season. Pete Crow-Armstrong delivered an MVP-caliber year, the Cubs fielded baseball’s top offense, and the club regained its footing to reach the postseason for a second consecutive season.
The October question
None of the five clubs that reached October after a losing streak of at least 10 games went on to win the World Series. The 2026 Cubs have an opportunity to change that record. Philadelphia could add another chapter if it lands a Wild Card spot after losing 10 straight earlier in the year.
The common thread is not that a long skid is harmless. It is that a season can still have enough runway for a talented club to regroup. The Giants, Braves, Dodgers, Guardians and Cubs all took a heavy punch, then found a way back into the playoff picture.
