Wednesday’s postseason slate delivered a first that had waited through decades of Division Series baseball: every visiting club walked off the field with a win.
The Dodgers, Rays and Brewers each closed out their respective series on the road, while the Guardians kept their October hopes alive by extending theirs. Four games were played, four road teams won, and postseason history added a new entry.
A first for a four-game postseason day
It marked the first postseason date with at least four games on the schedule in which the visitors completed a clean sweep. The achievement stands out not only because of the four wins, but because three of them ended series.
Wednesday was the 50th day in postseason history to feature four or more games. Those crowded dates became an annual part of the calendar when the Division Series format arrived in 1995.
Before that, a four-game postseason day had occurred only once, in 1981, when the split-season format produced extra division winners. The expanded 2020 playoff field also created one eight-game postseason day.
Home teams had done it twice
The reverse result has happened twice. Home clubs swept all four games on Oct. 5, 2018, and again on Oct. 1, 2020.
The 2020 games were played in home parks, although there were no fans in the stands because of the pandemic.
This time, the road side owned the day from start to finish. The Dodgers, Rays and Brewers moved on, the Guardians bought themselves another game, and a rare October schedule produced something baseball had never seen before.
