We rebuilt all 82 best-of-seven ALCS and NLCS, 470 games from 1985 to 2026, from MLB's Stats API, and checked every winner and series score against MLB.com's League Championship Series history. There was no postseason in 1994, and the 2020 series were played at neutral sites, so they stay out of every home-field figure. World Series results run through 2025, since the 2026 World Series has not begun.
How often the team with home-field advantage wins the ALCS and NLCS
Since 1985 the LCS has used the World Series format: the team with home-field advantage hosts Games 1 and 2 and, if needed, Games 6 and 7, and the other team hosts Games 3, 4 and 5. That team has won 45 of 80 series, 56 percent, a small edge in line with the game-by-game one: home teams have won 250 of 456 LCS games played in two ballparks, 55 percent.
The split by league is wide. Home-field teams have won 27 of 40 ALCS, 68 percent, but only 18 of 40 NLCS, 45 percent. In Game 7, home teams are 12-8 outside 2020.
LCS Game 1 winner record, and what each lead is worth
Game 1 winners have won 53 of the 82 League Championship Series, 65 percent, and 43 of 64 since 1995, 67 percent; through 2025 it was 42 of 62, the figure our study of World Series Game 1 winners gives for this round. Where it was won mattered a little: teams that won Game 1 at home took 30 of 43 series, 70 percent, and teams that won it on the road 22 of 37, 59 percent.
Winning Game 1 and losing Game 2 has left a team slightly worse than even, 18 wins in 41 series. A 2-0 lead has held 35 times in 41, and a 3-1 lead 39 times in 47:
| Situation | Series | Won the LCS | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Had home-field advantage | 80 | 45 | 56% |
| Won Game 1 | 82 | 53 | 65% |
| Won Game 1, lost Game 2 | 41 | 18 | 44% |
| Up 2-0 | 41 | 35 | 85% |
| Up 2-1 | 64 | 46 | 72% |
| Up 3-0 | 18 | 17 | 94% |
| Up 3-1 | 47 | 39 | 83% |
| Up 3-2 | 50 | 35 | 70% |
LCS sweeps and Game 7s: how many games the series go
If every LCS game were a coin flip, we would expect 10.3 sweeps among the 82 series, 20.5 five-game series and 25.6 each of six and seven games. The real counts are 12, 20, 28 and 22, close enough that any edge for the better team barely shows in the lengths.
| Length | Series | If every game were a coin flip | Pennant winner then won the World Series |
|---|---|---|---|
| Four games (sweep) | 12 | 10.3 | 4 of 11 |
| Five games | 20 | 20.5 | 11 of 20 |
| Six games | 28 | 25.6 | 15 of 27 |
| Seven games | 22 | 25.6 | 10 of 22 |
The 12 sweeps, most recent first:
- 2026 NLCS: Milwaukee Brewers over the Los Angeles Dodgers, World Series not yet played
- 2025 NLCS: Los Angeles Dodgers over the Milwaukee Brewers, then won the World Series
- 2022 ALCS: Houston Astros over the New York Yankees, then won the World Series
- 2019 NLCS: Washington Nationals over the St. Louis Cardinals, then won the World Series
- 2015 NLCS: New York Mets over the Chicago Cubs
- 2014 ALCS: Kansas City Royals over the Baltimore Orioles
- 2012 ALCS: Detroit Tigers over the New York Yankees
- 2007 NLCS: Colorado Rockies over the Arizona Diamondbacks
- 2006 ALCS: Tigers over the Oakland Athletics
- 1995 NLCS: Atlanta Braves over the Cincinnati Reds, then won the World Series
- 1990 ALCS: A's over the Boston Red Sox
- 1988 ALCS: A's over the Boston Red Sox
Sweepers lost the World Series in seven of the first eight cases, through the 2015 Mets, and won it in the next three, through the 2025 Dodgers. The 12th, the 2026 Brewers, swept the team that had swept them a year earlier. Among the 22 Game 7s, the most lopsided was the Atlanta Braves' 15-0 win over the St. Louis Cardinals in 1996, and the most recent was the Toronto Blue Jays' 4-3 win over the Seattle Mariners in the 2025 ALCS. Both LCS went seven games in 2003, 2004, 2020 and 2023.
Biggest ALCS and NLCS comebacks: the 2004 Red Sox and the 1-3 rallies
Seventeen of the 18 teams that led an LCS 3-0 won it. The exception is the only 0-3 comeback in MLB postseason history: the 2004 Boston Red Sox lost the first three games to the New York Yankees, the third 19-8 at Fenway Park, then won four straight, the last two at Yankee Stadium, and swept the Cardinals in the World Series.
Eight teams have won an LCS after trailing 1-3, and six of them went on to win the World Series. The Red Sox did it three times in four seasons, 1986, 2004 and 2007:
- 2020 NLCS: Los Angeles Dodgers over the Atlanta Braves, Game 7 4-3 at a neutral site; won the World Series
- 2012 NLCS: San Francisco Giants over the St. Louis Cardinals, Game 7 9-0 at home; won the World Series
- 2007 ALCS: Boston Red Sox over the Cleveland Indians, Game 7 11-2 at home; won the World Series
- 2004 ALCS: Boston Red Sox over the New York Yankees (from 0-3), Game 7 10-3 on the road; won the World Series
- 2003 NLCS: Florida Marlins over the Chicago Cubs, Game 7 9-6 on the road; won the World Series
- 1996 NLCS: Atlanta Braves over the St. Louis Cardinals, Game 7 15-0 at home
- 1986 ALCS: Boston Red Sox over the California Angels, Game 7 8-1 at home
- 1985 ALCS: Kansas City Royals over the Toronto Blue Jays, Game 7 6-2 on the road; won the World Series
Six teams have come back from 0-2, most recently the 2025 Blue Jays, who lost the first two games at home to the Mariners. No team has come back from 1-3 since the 2020 Dodgers; the four teams that have led an LCS 3-1 since then all won. Every comeback across the Division Series, LCS and World Series is in our MLB playoff comebacks study.
LCS winners who won the World Series
American League champions have won 21 of the 40 World Series since 1985 and National League champions 19. A long LCS has not hurt much: through 2025, pennant winners who needed seven games won 10 of 22 World Series, and sweepers 4 of 11. In the 26 years the two pennant winners had LCS of different lengths, the one with the shorter series won 13 times.
The New York Yankees have played the most LCS since 1985, 14, and won the most pennants, eight. The Cardinals and the Los Angeles Dodgers have lost the most, seven each. The Red Sox turned four of five pennants into titles, and the Dodgers won the World Series with their last two, in 2024 and 2025:
| Franchise | LCS played | Pennants | World Series won |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York Yankees | 14 | 8 | 5 |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | 13 | 6 | 4 |
| Atlanta Braves | 11 | 6 | 2 |
| St. Louis Cardinals | 13 | 6 | 2 |
| Boston Red Sox | 11 | 5 | 4 |
| San Francisco Giants | 6 | 5 | 3 |
| Houston Astros | 10 | 5 | 2 |
The 2026 ALCS and NLCS: Rays in six, Brewers in a sweep
The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Cleveland Guardians 4-2 in the 2026 ALCS, the teams' first LCS meeting. Cleveland won Games 1 and 3, 7-3 in St. Petersburg and 3-2 at home, around a 3-1 Rays win in Game 2. The Rays then won three straight, 7-3 and 3-1 in Cleveland and 7-3 at home in Game 6 on October 19.
The Rays had swept the Yankees in the Division Series and held home-field advantage, while the Guardians had come back from 0-2 to beat the Chicago White Sox in five. The Rays have won all three of their LCS, in 2008, 2020 and 2026, and Cleveland three of its seven since 1985.
The NLCS was a rematch: the Milwaukee Brewers, with home-field advantage, against the Dodgers, who beat them in seven games in 2018 and swept them last year. This time the Brewers swept, 2-1 and 7-4 at home and 6-2 and 6-4 at Dodger Stadium, ending the two-time defending champions' season on October 15. It was Milwaukee's first National League pennant, after NLCS defeats in 2011, 2018 and 2025; the franchise's only other pennant came in the American League in 1982. By MLB.com's count, no team had ever been swept and then swept the same opponent in the next postseason.
Both pennants went to the team with home-field advantage, and the Brewers' sweep was the 12th since the LCS went to seven games. The World Series starts on Friday, October 23, at 8 p.m. ET at American Family Field in Milwaukee, where a Game 7 would be played on October 31. Neither franchise has won it, so 2026 will produce a first-time champion, and it is the first World Series between two franchises without a title since 1980, when the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Kansas City Royals. Results will be on our 2026 MLB playoff bracket, and how teams with the best record and wild cards have fared once they reach the World Series is in our look at the best record in October and our analysis of wild cards.
ALCS and NLCS history: frequently asked questions
How often does the team with home-field advantage win the LCS? 45 times in 80 since 1985, 56 percent, leaving out 2020's neutral-site series. It has won 68 percent of ALCS but 45 percent of NLCS.
How often does the Game 1 winner win the ALCS or NLCS? 53 times in 82, 65 percent, since the LCS became best-of-seven in 1985.
How many LCS have been sweeps? Twelve of 82, most recently the 2026 Brewers against the Dodgers, a year after the Dodgers swept them. Twenty-two have gone seven games, and home teams are 12-8 in those Game 7s, not counting 2020's two at neutral sites.
Has a team come back from 0-3 in the LCS? Once: the 2004 Boston Red Sox against the New York Yankees in the ALCS. Eight teams have come back from 1-3, most recently the 2020 Los Angeles Dodgers.
How often does the LCS winner win the World Series? Each year one of the two pennant winners does, so 40 of the 80 from 1985 to 2025. By league, AL champions lead 21-19; by LCS length, sweepers have won 4 of 11 and seven-game winners 10 of 22.
Who won the 2026 ALCS and NLCS? The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Cleveland Guardians 4-2 in the ALCS, and the Milwaukee Brewers swept the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS. They meet in the World Series, starting October 23 in Milwaukee.
How this was built: every best-of-seven ALCS and NLCS from 1985 to 2026, 82 series and 470 games, from MLB's Stats API, grouped by round and pair of teams. Every winner and series score matches MLB.com's LCS history, and the 2004 ALCS matches its year page game by game. Home-field advantage is the team that hosted Game 1, as in MLB.com's history of postseason formats; figures that depend on it leave out 2020. Franchises are counted under current names, and World Series results run through 2025. 2026 results: Stats API, as of 8:49 p.m. Eastern on October 21.