Ten Stats You May Not Know About MLB Game Sevens

by Jerry Tapp

The Milwaukee Brewers and Los Angeles Dodgers will face off in Game 7 of the National League Championship Series (NLCS) tonight with the Brewers playing at home. This will be the 59th game 7 in MLB history. Forty-two of those game 7’s were in the World Series; seven were in the American League Championship Series (ALCS); and this will be the 10 Game 7 in the history of the NLCS.

Here’s 10 stats you may not know about the history of Game 7’s in baseball’s history.

1. The most runs scored in a Game Seven were 15 by the Atlanta Braves in a 15-0 win over the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1996 NLCS.
2. There have been 16 shutouts in a Game Seven.
3. There have been 16 one-run games in Game Sevens.
4. The most frequent score in a Game Seven is 3-2. That has happened six times.
5. There have been 15 times where the winning team won Game Seven by a margin of five runs or more.
6. The Dodgers have lost five Game Sevens in their history, four as the Brooklyn Dodgers (1920, 1947, 1952 and 1956). They also lost a Game Seven last year in the World Series to the Houston Astros. The Brewers have lost one Game Seven in their history… a loss to the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1982 World Series.
7. Home teams are a very average 31-27 (.534 winning percentage) in Game Sevens.
8. There have been five Game sevens that went into extra innings. The home team is 4-1 in those games. The only road team to win a Game Seven in extra innings were the Chicago Cubs in the 2016 World Series over the Indians in Cleveland.
9. Of the 16 teams that have won an LCS (A.L. or N.L.) eight went on to win the World Series that year. The last team to do so were the Astros last year who beat the Yankees in seven games in the ALCS and then won the World Series last year.
10. The Game Seven loser in the previous 16 LCS contests has scored less than three runs in 13 of those 16 games.
11. Bonus Stat: How many runs will it take to win Game Seven? Of the previous 16 LCS that went to a Game Seven, teams that scored three or more runs were 16-3 (.842 winning percentage); teams that scored four or more runs in that Game Seven were 13-2 (.867 winning percentage); and those teams that scored seven or more runs in Game seven were a perfect 6-0.