Dodgers Clinch History: The Longest Postseason Appearance Streaks In MLB

The Dodgers clinched a spot in the 2026 MLB postseason on Monday, defeating the Reds, 4-1 — the win actually also eliminated Cincinnati from contention, keeping the Reds from making it to back-to-back postseasons. Los Angeles was working toward a much lengthier streak, however: the Dodgers have now made it to October baseball 14 years in a row, tying the MLB record. A lengthy postseason streak like L.A.’s is nearly unheard of in MLB; most of the longest-ever streaks are considerably shorter. That’s what makes what the Dodgers pulled off so special, however. Here are all the MLB postseason appearance streaks of at least five consecutive seasons in league history — there are fewer of them than you might have realized. Seven different MLB teams have made the postseason five seasons in a row, but only the Yankees managed to win the World Series in each of those five campaigns. New York actually won the 1947 World Series, as well, but in ‘48 finished in third in the American League — this was before not just wild-cards but also divisions and the League Championship Series: whichever team came in first won the pennant to represent its respective league in the Fall Classic. That makes this streak all the more impressive. New York failed to make the postseason in 1954, but then appeared in another four-straight World Series before that streak snapped, too. The 1971 reached the 1971 ALCS, but lost to the Orioles, the winners of the first three American League postseason series. The then-Oakland A’s would win the next three ALCS, however, as well as the World Series in each of those seasons, powered by the likes of Hall of Famers Reggie Jackson and Catfish Hunter. The 1975 Red Sox would sweep the Athletics in that ALCS, however, keeping Oakland from making it four in a row, and then the A’s would finish in second in the AL West beyond the Kansas City Royals in ‘76, before settling in at or near the bottom of the division for the next few seasons. The ‘49-’53 Yankees won five-straight World Series, then missed the postseason for a year, made it to four more Fall Classics, then missed the playoffs again. That created an opportunity for another five-year streak, for the 1960-1964 Yankees. This New York club didn’t win five World Series in a row like its predecessor, but the Bombers still picked up two championships, in 1961 and 1962. Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle finished first and second in the AL MVP race in ‘61 — that was Maris’ then-record 61-homer campaign — and Mantle won the award in ‘62 after getting on base in nearly half of his plate appearances. The Phillies of Chase Utley, Cole Hamels, Ryan Howard, Shane Victorino and Jimmy Rollins. This group made it to two World Series — 2008 and 2009 — defeating the Rays and losing to the Yankees, respectively. Philadelphia also dropped the 2010 NLCS to the San Francisco Giants, but there was nothing to be done there: the Phillies weren’t even the first team to go down to what even Giants’ fans refer to as “even year magic” — sometimes referred to by a uh less family-friendly term — and they also were nowhere near the last one. Like the Phillies before them, the Cardinals won just one World Series during their streak — and defeated Philadelphia to get there. St. Louis took on the Phils in the final season of their five-season postseason appearance run, and defeated them before then taking down the Brewers in the NLCS and then the Rangers in the World Series. Chris Carpenter led the NL in innings and the staff in wins above replacement, while Albert Pujols — in his final season with the Cardinals — powered the offense. Even with Pujols heading to the Angels after this title, St. Louis made the next four postseasons, as well. The state of Cleveland baseball was such at the start of 1995 that the movie Major League arrived on the scene just six years earlier, telling the believable tale of a team of losers playing for a franchise that had made a decades-spanning habit of losing. Cleveland hadn’t reached the postseason since 1954, when it lost the World Series to the then-New York Giants; 1995 was the snapping of that lengthy streak, and the start of a new one. While the World Series drought is ongoing, Cleveland at least made it there twice during this run, losing to the Braves in 1995 and then the Marlins in 1997. The most recent of the five-year streaks came out of Tampa Bay, starting in 2019. The Rays finished in second in the AL East that season, snapping a five-year postseason drought in the process, then won the division in each of the next two seasons. The Rays lost the 2020 World Series to the Dodgers, and didn’t get past the ALDS in any of the four other appearances. While Tampa Bay had missed the postseason the past two years, the 2026 squad kept that from turning into a lengthy streak by clinching a playoff spot. No surprise, given the expansion of the postseason from two teams to division winners to wild-card participants, that all the teams from this point forward are more modern ones, with all having at least part of their streak occur in the 21st century. The 2017-2022 Yankees were one such team, breaking out of the multi-way tie of five-straight postseason campaigns with a sixth in that last year. Fans might not have many positive memories of these teams — despite six playoffs in a row, the Yankees didn’t win a title or even reach the World Series, and lost to the eventual champion Red Sox in the 2018 ALDS. Still, these were the teams that saw Aaron Judge emerge as a force of nature whose performance stands up against MLB’s greats. There’s at least room to appreciate that. It took a season full of injuries to key player after key player to end this streak for the Braves, but it’s tough to argue with what Atlanta got out of it before the misery of 2025 set in. The 2021 Braves won the organization’s first World Series since 1995 and just the fourth since the AL and NL got together back when the team played in Boston. There’s room to argue that Atlanta should have won more during this seven-year run, considering that it also included six NL East crowns in a row and back-to-back seasons with over 100 wins in 2022 and 2023, but it’s worth pointing out that not every postseason streak on this list even managed the one championship — and the 2021 Braves pulled it off despite losing superstar outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. to his first ACL tear midseason. The Astros lost the World Series in 2005, when Houston was still in the National League. The ‘Stros wouldn’t make the postseason again until 2015, thanks to what was at first just your normal failure to make the playoffs, and then became a tanking-focused rebuild of the organization from the ground up. When all those first-round draft picks arrived and hit the ground running, it didn’t take long for the team to become a juggernaut: the 2017 Astros not only won the organization’s first-ever World Series, but did so with the first of back-to-back-to-back 100+ win seasons. While the 2019 and 2021 Astros would lose the World Series, the ‘22 edition made it two, and a second-place finish in the AL West in 2025 — caused in no small part by major injuries to key players like Yordan Alvarez — finally snapped the streak. It should have been difficult to top the first Yankees’ entry on this list — five World Series championships in five seasons — but the 1995-2007 Bronx Bombers pulled it off. While this New York run didn’t feature five titles in a row, it did go 13 seasons, and included four World Series victories in six chances, and this despite the fact that these more modern Yanks had to contend with the introduction of the American League Division Series, not just the ALCS. What makes it all wilder is that the streak was snapped in 2008, when New York failed to make the postseason because the Red Sox and Rays took those spots back when there was still just one wild-card, but that squad still won 89 games. And in 2009, won the World Series in the first of four consecutive postseason appearances — that’s 17 in 18 years, with five championships. What a run. The Braves didn’t make the postseason in 1994, but no one did: the playoffs and World Series were canceled by commissioner Bud Selig that season, thanks to the ongoing strike. Atlanta did make it to meaningful October baseball in 14 consecutive postseasons, then, which still counts because the Montreal Expos didn’t actually win the NL East in ‘94 — they were just in first when the season ended with 48 games left for Atlanta to try to catch up. And even if you wanted to argue otherwise, well, Atlanta’s 68-46 record would have had it in line for the first-ever NL wild-card spot. Leaving aside 1994, we have plenty of seasons where there were playoffs, and the Braves made them, flanking that abridged campaign. The 1995 World Series championship was the highlight: the rotation featured three future Hall of Fame starters in Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz, and the lineup had another in third baseman Chipper Jones. Yet another Hall of Famer in Andruw Jones would be introduced into the mix in 1996; both Chipper and Andruw were still there in the final season of this run, in 2005, as was Smoltz and manager Bobby Cox, whose first year in the role came at the start of the streak in ‘91. The Dodgers’ streak is ongoing — another postseason appearance in 2027 would have Los Angeles as the sole all-time leader. It’s already been a hugely successful run even if L.A. fails to make next year’s playoffs, though: the Dodgers won the 2020 World Series, as well as 2024’s and 2025’s — the first back-to-back World Series victories since the Yankees won three in a row between 1998 and 2000. The Dodgers have won the NL West in all but one season of the streak between 2013 and 2025, and a divisional crown in 2026 is a mathematical formality as of this writing on Sept. 15. The continuation of the streak wouldn’t be possible without the likes of Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and, of course, two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani, but Betts didn’t join the roster until the streak was already seven seasons deep, while Freeman arrived for 2022 and Ohtani 2024. The likes of Clayton Kershaw, Justin Turner, Zack Greinke, Cody Bellinger and more started all of this and kept it going, and now these current Dodgers are something of a next generation keeping it going still. For how long? We’ll have to wait and see how the future plays out to know, but Los Angeles is always a threat to contend when it has a Shohei Ohtani to capitalize on.