Brewers' NLCS sweep could help given Guardians hidden advantage in World Series

Should Cleveland come out on top over the Rays and win the ALCS, they could find themselves at an advantage against the National League champion Milwaukee Brewers. The Brewers took care of the Los Angeles Dodgers in a four-game sweep, just one year after being swept themselves by the Dodgers, marking the first time that's occurred in MLB history. But did Milwaukee end the NLCS too quickly?

Sure, it may seem bizarre to say a team was too dominant in a series considering no team would ever throw a game (unless we're talking about the 1919 Chicago White Sox). But the numbers suggest it could be rough sailing for the Brewers in the World Series.

Since the LCS moved to a best-of-7 format in 1985, there have been nine teams that have recorded sweeps in the series. Of those nine teams, only two (the 2019 Washington Nationals and 2025 Los Angeles Dodgers) have won the World Series.

And it wasn't like it was smooth sailing for those teams either, as they both won the World Series in seven games after going down 3-2 in their series. They were also both saved by miraculous home runs in Game 7 of the series (Howie Kendrick for the Nationals and Miguel Rojas for the Dodgers).

The Brewers' lull between the NLCS and World Series could potetioanlly help the Guardians

Meanwhile we know the ALCS is going to go at least five games and could go the full distance. Baseball is a rhythm sport and often, the less time off between games, the easier it is, especially for hitters. Many position players will tell you that it is difficult coming back from the All-Star break because even just a few days off will throw off their rhythm in the box. The Brewers will have eight days off between their LCS clinch and the World Series.

Numbers don't mean everything, nor are they necessarily representative of what will happen anymore than confirmation bias might be. I have never been a fan of the “this team has not beaten this team in a postseason series since the Reagan administration” stat. While I say that tongue-in-cheek, the point stands that current players do not care about made up curses. 

That said, again baseball is rhythm and timing and days off do matter. Just as hitters tend to be behind pitchers coming out of Spring Training.

It should be noted the Brewers have been dominant all year as they have made more than a fair share of elite (and I mean elite) pitchers falter. Ask Mason Miller, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Blake Snell (among others).

Obviously, the Guardians still need to take care of business in the ALCS. But this is just some food for thought as we get our hopes up for a World Series in Cleveland.

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