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Over in the NL, though, the Dodgers, Cubs, and Mets all changed hands between 2009 and 2021. Those teams have won four of the last nine World Series. The Phillies, under John Middleton, combined development and dollars to reach four straight postseasons. The Braves went into a rebuild and came out of it with a World Series and a core locked down for most of this decade. The Brewers are the inheritors of the Moneyball lineage now, while the Padres invested in their product and drew three million fans in three straight seasons.
That’s showing up in interleague play. The NL has had the better record in two of the last three and four of the last seven seasons, not including this one. The NL has a .512 winning percentage in interleague play since 2018 (ex. 2020; 2020 never counts) and a .516 mark under the “everybody plays everybody” schedule, plus this year’s early-season waxing.
