The Milwaukee Brewers could close out the 2026 World Series on Tuesday night. A win over the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 4 would complete a sweep, something that has happened 21 times in the history of the Fall Classic.
A sweep would bring Milwaukee its first World Series championship in franchise history. It would also put the Brewers in rare company. They would join the 1976 Cincinnati Reds as the only teams to sweep both the League Championship Series and the World Series.
The sweep has been more common in the American League than the National League. AL teams have won a World Series in four straight games 13 times, compared with eight for NL clubs. The New York Yankees account for eight of the AL's 13 sweeps.
In the National League, the New York and San Francisco Giants lead with three sweeps. The Cincinnati Reds have two.
The most recent sweep came in 2012, when the San Francisco Giants beat the Detroit Tigers. The Boston Red Sox swept the Colorado Rockies in 2007 and the St. Louis Cardinals in 2004, while the Chicago White Sox swept the Houston Astros in 2005.
The Yankees completed back-to-back sweeps in 1998 and 1999, beating the San Diego Padres and then the Atlanta Braves. Their other sweeps came against the Philadelphia Phillies in 1950, the Cincinnati Reds in 1939, the Chicago Cubs in 1938 and 1932, the St. Louis Cardinals in 1928 and the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1927.
Cincinnati swept the Oakland Athletics in 1990 and the Yankees in 1976. Oakland had its own sweep in 1989, beating the San Francisco Giants. The Baltimore Orioles swept the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1966, and the Dodgers returned the favor against the Yankees in 1963.
The Giants, then based in New York, swept the Cleveland Indians in 1954 and the Yankees in 1922. The list is rounded out by the Boston Braves over the Philadelphia Athletics in 1914 and the Chicago Cubs over the Detroit Tigers in 1907.
