September: The Five Worst Collapses of the 2000s

We're already in the final month of the 2026 Major League Baseball season, and this famous month of September can bring both spectacular comebacks and epic collapses.

In fact, let's take a brief look back at the worst collapses in MLB over the past 25 years.

Starting with the San Diego Padres, who led the National League West division for virtually the entire 2010 season before crashing and burning. At the end of August, San Diego held a six-and-a-half-game lead over the San Francisco Giants before losing ten straight games and finishing the season with a record of 14 wins and 23 losses.

The Padres finished with a 90–72 record—two games behind the eventual World Series champions (the Giants)—and did not make the postseason.

Now let's talk about the 2009 Detroit Tigers. Detroit had won its first six games in September and held a seven-game lead over the Minnesota Twins in the American League Central Division.

But the Tigers finished the season with an 11–15 record, which left them tied with the Twins and forced them into a 163rd game, which they lost in the 12th inning.

Next up were the Atlanta Braves in 2011. Comfortably positioned in the race for the National League's second-best record with an 81–55 record and an eight-game lead over the St. Louis Cardinals, the Georgia team finished the season with a 9–18 record, knocking them out of playoff contention.

That same year, the Boston Red Sox also fell apart. The Red Sox entered September not only in position to play postseason baseball but also as the American League's top seed with an 83–52 record.

At that point, they held a one-and-a-half-game lead over the New York Yankees in the Eastern Division and were nine games ahead of the best Wild Card team. However, they went 7–20 in September, finishing the season seven games behind New York and one game behind the Tampa Bay Rays for the sole “best second-place” spot.

Finally, honor where honor is due: the 2007 New York Mets. By mid-September, the Mets were the best team in the National League and held a seven-game lead in the National League East over the Philadelphia Phillies

Their 5–12 record in the final 17 games of the season cost them the division lead and left them behind the Colorado Rockies and the Padres in the race for the best second-place finish, preventing them from reaching the playoffs in what turned out to be the worst collapse in MLB history

Created by humans, assisted by AI.