Teams to come back from down 0-2 in World Series: History says Rays in trouble after game 2 loss

Teams to come back from down 0-2 in World Series: History says Rays in trouble after game 2 loss originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Two games into the World Series, the Tampa Bay Rays are already on the ropes.

The Milwaukee Brewers took the first two games of the Fall Classic to go up 2-0 in the series, locking down both home games. While the series shifts to St. Petersburg, the Rays have a daunting task awaiting them when they start their stretch of home games on Monday.

An 0-2 deficit is always difficult to overcome, especially this late into the playoffs. While MLB teams have found ways to overcome that deficit in recent years, those haven't come in the World Series since the turn of the millennium.

For the Rays to take home their first World Series title, they will have to do something that hasn't been done in 30 years. Here's a look at all the teams that have overcome this hole in the World Series.

Teams to Come back from down 0-2 in World Series

Just 10 times in World Series history has a team come back from down 0-2 to win the World Series, and it hasn't happened in 30 years. The last time a team lost the first two games only to win the World Series, the New York Yankees responded with four straight wins over the Atlanta Braves in 1996.

Before that, there was a stretch where teams came back more frequently in World Series history. In nine World Series between 1978 and 1986, four teams were able to overcome the deficit, proving that it is not as daunting a task as it may first appear.

The first time this happened was in 1955, when the Brooklyn Dodgers did so against the Yankees, and the two sides switched fortunes just a year later. The Yankees and Dodgers each have three 0-2 comebacks, while every other team in the majors has combined for four such World Series Comebacks.

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Last team to come back from down 0-2 in World Series

The 1996 Yankees were the last World Series winner to take home the championship after dropping the first two games. In fact, New York was in an even dire situation after the first two losses, both of which came at home.

Those Yankees were, at the time, underdogs and facing the defending champion Braves, who were considered a budding dynasty. Instead, New York went into Atlanta and stunned the Braves with three straight wins before clinching the title at home, the first of four championships in five years.

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How many teams have come back from down 0-2 in any 7-game series?

In MLB playoff history, 16 times a team has overcome a 0-2 deficit to win a seven-game series. Besides the 10 that came in the World Series, there have been six in the Championship Series round, including:

• Toronto Blue Jays over Seattle Mariners in 2025 ALCS
• Arizona Diamondbacks over Philadelphia Phillies in 2023 NLCS
• Los Angeles Dodgers over Atlanta Braves in 2020 NLCS
• Boston Red Sox over New York Yankees in 2004 ALCS
• Kansas City Royals over Toronto Blue Jays in the 1985 ALCS
• St. Louis Cardinals over the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1985 NLCS

Of course, the Red Sox win was when they were down 0-3, the only time a team has come back from that deficit in MLB history.

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