While I was on vacation, the Yankees did something that had not been done in baseball in ten years. They won five straight games of a five-game road series against the same opponent, the Red Sox if you haven't already heard. In the process they did their best to eliminate Boston from the postseason, sending them from 1.5 to 6.5 games out of first in the AL East and from 2.5 to 4 games out of the wild card hunt.

The Yanks outscored the Sox 49 to 23 for an average margin of victory of 4.6 runs. The other two times that Yankees took five straight in Boston were in 1927 and 1943, but they did not score nearly as many runs nor did they outscore the Sox by as much (35-14, 4.2 from June 21 to June 23, 1927—including two doubleheaders—and 34-12, 4.4 from September 9 to September 12, 1943).

However, it was by no means the worst drubbing that a New York team ever visiting on a Boston team on their home field. They were just different teams, ones that no longer exist, at least as Boston and New York teams.

From September 10 to September 14, 1928, the Giants took eight straight games of an eight-game series from the Braves at Braves Field via four doubleheaders in five days (with the off day coming day three). In the process they tied the record for doubleheader sweeps on consecutive days. No other road team has ever won more than six straight games against the same opponent.

On Monday, September 10, the Giants won 4-1 and 11-0, on Tuesday the Eleventh, 11-6 and 7-6 (with Freddie Lindstrom going 8-for-10), on Thursday the Thirteenth, 12-2 and 7-6, and finally on Friday the Fourteenth, 6-2 and 5-1 (in eight innings). In the process the Giants moved from 4.5 games back in third place on Sept. 9 to one game out in second place on September 14. Unfortunately, that's as close as they got to the first-place Cardinals, who won by two games two weeks later.

In the series Fat Freddie Fitzsimmons and Jack Scott both won two games. Cal Hubbell, Joe Genewich, Larry Benton, and reliever Jim Faulkner (in relief of Genewich, who allowed three in the first) each won one game. The Braves' Bob Smith lost three games including both ends of the last doubleheader.

The Braves actually led in the first inning of the 7-6 game on 9/11. The Giants tied it up in the second. They again led 2-1 in the fourth, but the Giants scored two to lead off the fifth, and then led the rest of the game. In the other 7-6 game (9/13), the Braves led 3-0 from the first until the bottom of the first until the top of the fourth. Then the Giants scored three to tie it, the Braves again went ahead in the top of the fifth, 4-3, but the Giants again tied the game in eighth, and then went ahead to stay with three runs in the ninth. These were the only leads the Braves held in the series (they also had a tie in game three from the bottom of the fourth until the top of the sixth and then again from the bottom of the sixth until the top of the seventh).

The Braves did not score in the first game until down 4-0 in the bottom of the ninth. They didn't score at all in game two. After keeping game three close (2-2) though six full innings, they allowed six runs to the Giants en route to an 11-6 blowout. In game five, they did not score until the seventh when they were already down 9-zip. In game seven, they allowed five in the top of the first frame en route to a 6-2 loss. In the final game, the Braves did not score until they were already down 5-0 in the eighth and final inning of a game apparently shortened due to darkness.

The most lopsided five-game series, however, came in New York from September 4 to September 6, 1901. The last-place Giants lost six straight at home to the first-place Pirates by a combined score of 80-23 or about 13.3 to 3.8 on average. That's an average margin of victory of 9.5 runs. The Pirates outscored the Giants 10.2 in the last five games of the series, and 9.6 in the first five. Aside from this series, only the Cardinals in a 1926 five-game sweep of the Phils done so with an average margin of victory greater than 7.2 runs (also 9.6). To top it off, the Giants lost 10-4 to Chicago the day before the series started for seven straight games with double-digit run totals allowed.

As it turned out it was just the first six-game sweep by a road team of the season. The Phils sweep the Reds from September 30 to October 2, 1901. There have only been eleven six-game sweeps by a road team all-time, the last coming in 1932.

By the way, here are all of the five-game sweeps by a road team since World War II. Note that the Yanks-Sox is the most lopsided since the soon-to-be World Champion Phils took five straight from the Mets at Shea in 1980:

Here are the most lopsided five-game sweeps by a road team all-time: