Cleveland got off to a rocky start to the ALDS, dropping back-to-back games at home against the rival White Sox. Throughout league history, when a team drops the first two games of a division series, especially when those games were played at their home stadium, very few have been able to claw their way back and win the series.
In fact, entering play on Saturday, only eight teams in the history of MLB’s division series had ever come back to overturn a 2–0 deficit. Under the current 2–2–1 format, in which the higher-seeded team plays at home in Games 1, 2 and 5, only two other teams have ever completed such a comeback––the 2015 Blue Jays and the ‘01 Yankees.
