1910 Detroit Tigers
The first team to lose consecutive World Series – to the Cubs in 1907 and 1908 – the Tigers made it three straight when they fell to the Pirates in 1909.
Still there was every reason to expect the Tigers to contend again in 1910. After all, they had Ty Cobb in his prime, seeking his fourth of an eventual nine consecutive batting titles. Cobb won that title, batting .383. Cobb’s outfield mates, Sam Crawford ad Davy Jones, backed that up with solid seasons, and Tiger mound aces George Mullin and Bill Donovan performed admirably.
Still, Detroit couldn’t keep pace with Philadelphia’s sensational pitching staff, which dominated the American League in 1910. As a group, their league-leading 1.79 ERA was a full point better than Detroit’s 2.82. Jack Coombs went 31-9 with a 1.30 ERA, Eddie Plank was 16-10, 2.01, and Chief Bender posted 23-5 record and 1.58 ERA.
The trio was not only good but omnipresent. Together they pitched 753 of the 1,422 innings played by the Athletics that season. In the World Series, Coombs won three times as the Athletics held the National League champion Chicago Cubs to a .234 team batting average and single victory.
The Tigers won 11 of their first 16 games, led in early May and re-took the lead in mid-June. But they were unable to stay with the Athletics’ killing pace. Trailing the A’s by six games in early July, the defending champions came to Philadelphia for a vital four-game series at recently opened Shibe Park and got swept, leaving town 10 games back. Cobb had five hits in that series, but the A’s lit into Tiger pitching for 43 hits.
From that point on the Tigers played out the string, eventually finishing in third place, 18 games behind.
The outlook for the Dodgers is definitely not positive for the 2019 season, based on history.