1978: July 19 Red Sox lead Yankees by 14. Sept. 10 tied after four game sweep in Boston.

Ah, those thrilling days of yesteryear. Forty years later it's deja vu all over again as the Great Yogi said. Yogi Berra that is. Now in 2018 the Yankees are three games behind the Red Sox in the loss column with a four game series starting in Boston tomorrow.

July 19, 1978:

Tm	W	L	W-L%	GB	RS	RA	pythW-L%
BOS	62	28	.689	--	488	351	.646
MIL	53	37	.589	9.0	464	369	.603
BAL	51	42	.548	12.5	369	421	.440
NYY	48	42	.533	14.0	390	361	.535
DET	46	45	.505	16.5	391	377	.517
CLE	43	49	.467	20.0	378	394	.481
TOR	33	59	.359	30.0	363	455	.398

September 10, 1978:

Tm	W	L	W-L%	GB	RS	RA	pythW-L%
BOS	86	56	.606	--	705	591	.580
NYY	86	56	.606	--	654	510	.612
MIL	82	61	.573	4.5	716	578	.597
BAL	80	62	.563	6.0	574	576	.498
DET	77	65	.542	9.0	639	574	.549
CLE	61	80	.433	24.5	583	623	.470
TOR	56	88	.389	31.0	548	686	.399

Yankee Managers: Billy Martin (52-42) , Dick Howser (0-1) and Bob Lemon (48-20)
Red Sox Manager: Don Zimmer (99-64)

In Fenway Park:
Thursday, September 7, 1978  Yankees 15, Red Sox 3
Friday, September 8, 1978  Yankees 13, Red Sox 2
Saturday, September 9, 1978  Yankees 7, Red Sox 0
Sunday, September 10, 1978  Yankees 7, Red Sox 4

It was baseball's "Boston Massacre", a term I hesitate to use except for historical accuracy. The real "Boston Massacre":

The Boston Massacre, known as the Incident on King Street by the British, was an incident on March 5, 1770, in which British Army soldiers shot and killed five people while under attack by a mob.Wikipedia

Date: March 5, 1770

But there was still much of the season to play.

September 15-17, 1978 at Yankee Stadium:
Yankees 4, Red Sox 0; Yankees up 2.5 games
Yankees 3, Red Sox 2; Yankees up 3.5 games
Red Sox 7, Yankees 3: Yankees up 2.5 games

3.5 games was the biggest lead that the Yankees had after catching the Red Sox. If the Yankees had also swept at home, that probably would have ended it. But the Red Sox, to their credit, came back and Sept. 23, 1978 pulled within one game. The Yankees then won six consecutive games but the Red Sox remained one game back all the way. Finally, on the last Sunday of the regular season the Red Sox beat Toronto 5-0 at home and the Yankees lost to Cleveland at the Stadium 9-2.

The teams were tied after 162 games necessitating the legendary extra game. The Yankees lost a coin toss and had to play that game in Fenway Park the next afternoon.
Monday, October 2, 1978
Yankees 5, Red Sox 4
HR: Bucky Dent (5, off Mike Torrez, 7th inn, 2 on, 2 outs to LF); Reggie Jackson (27, off Bob Stanley, 8th inn, 0 on, 0 outs to CF).
HR: Carl Yastrzemski (17, off Ron Guidry, 2nd inn, 0 on, 0 outs to RF).

Yankee ace Ron Guidry won his 25th game to complete his amazing season.

Pitching	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA	BF	GSc	IR	IS	WPA	aLI	RE24
Ron Guidry, W (25-3)	6.1	6	2	2	1	5	1	1.74	26	57			0.057	0.88	1.1
Rich Gossage, S (27)	2.2	5	2	2	1	2	0	2.01	14		1	0	0.222	3.49	-0.4
Team Totals	9	11	4	4	2	7	1	4.00	40	57	1	0	0.279	1.83	0.8

Pitching	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA	BF	GSc	IR	IS	WPA	aLI	RE24
Mike Torrez, L (16-13)	6.2	5	4	4	3	4	1	3.96	28	49			-0.095	1.27	0.5
Bob Stanley	0.1	2	1	1	0	0	1	2.60	3		1	1	-0.183	0.95	-1.8
Andy Hassler	1.2	1	0	0	0	2	0	3.87	6		0	0	0.038	0.38	0.8
Dick Drago	0.1	0	0	0	0	0	0	3.03	1		1	0	0.019	0.68	0.2
Team Totals	9	8	5	5	3	6	2	5.00	38	49	2	1	-0.221	1.09	-0.2

Doomsday scenario: 100 win teams tie for division lead ... in multiple divisions. Saturday, July 7, 2018

From 1903 through 1960 each of the two major leagues had eight teams. The American League team with the most wins played the National League team with the most wins in the World Series, usually best of seven games. Occasionally two teams tied for first and that was settled by those teams playing extra regular season games:
AL: one game, example 1948 Indians - Red Sox
NL: best of three games, examples:
1946 Dodgers - Cardinals
1951 Dodgers - Giants
1959 Dodgers - Braves
1962 Dodgers - Giants

Then came expansion and eventually in 1969 two divisions in each league through 1993. The division winners would play a series (best of five 1969-1984, then best of seven) then play in the World Series.

There was a tie for the division:
1978 Yankees - Red Sox; Ron Guidry won his 25th game ...

For some bizarre reason teams that tie for the division lead must play one additional game to determine the division winner. The loser would then play the wild card game to qualify for round one.

In this scenario, BOTH wild card teams would have more than 100 wins. And that would be way more than the number of wins of the other division winner. Currently: Indians with 49 wins.

To make it more ridiculous, the Yankees play their final three games in Fenway Park Boston against the Red Sox September 28, 29, 30. Just hope none are rained out...

Imagine trying to decide how to schedule your best starting pitchers. Let's say Chris Sale of the Red Sox and Luis Severino of the Yankees. Might one or both of the teams decide it's better to risk losing a final deciding game to have their ace rested? But what if that game decides that the teams finish in a tie? Then it's:
- one game to decide the division
- one wild card game.

The division tie should NOT be decided by playing an additional game. It's just too debilitating. Plus, there's the possibility of tanking. What a tangled web.
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