VORG favorite Jayson Stark tweeted the following recently:
This #RedSox–#Yankees series isn’t just epic. It’s historic. According to @EliasSports it’s the first time two teams with this good a win pct have met this late in a season since 9/2/54! That was #Yankees–#Indians. Wow
— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) June 29, 2018
… which got me wondering:
Okay …. that begs the question … what is the record for biggest difference in W-L record between a 2nd and 3rd place team in a division or league at the end of a season. Rays are now 14 games out of 2nd place.
— Diane Firstman (@dianagram) June 30, 2018
Using the Lahman Baseball Database, I captured the won-loss records of all teams by league (and division where appropriate) since 1900. I filter out those records to leave only the second and third place teams in each league/division, and computed the “games behind” difference between those two teams.
In the division play era, you have to go back to the 2001 American League West. That year saw the Mariners win 116 games to run away with the division by 14 games, but the second place Oakland A’s won 102 games themselves to finish a whopping 27 games ahead of the third place Anaheim Angels.
Prior to the division play era, the record occurred during the 1942 National League season. The Cardinals won 106 games to take the pennant, with the second-place Brooklyn Dodgers winning 104 games. The third place New York Giants finished 18 games behind the Dodgers. (Hat tip to friend of VORG Richard Chester for this part of the answer).