In the 2026 chapter of Major League Baseball's (MLB's) interleague rivalry, National League teams (NL) schooled American League (AL) teams 392 wins to 339 (53.6%) after including the NL Brewers' 4-1 win in the World Series (WS) and the AL's victory in the all-star match.
Including the WS, Milwaukee finished 36-17 against AL teams. All signs pointed toward Milwaukee winning the WS before the 1st pitch was thrown.
After decades of AL superiority in the World Series (WS), the NL has won 6 of the last 8. Los Dodgers won 3 of the previous 5 before 2026. Over the last 2 decades from 2006-2026, the NL is now ahead 13-8. From 1983 through 2005, the AL won 15 of 22 World Series championships.
The AL's collective mark in interleague regular season matches was -48. As a result, only 5 of 15 AL squads finished with winning interleague records in 2026 -- BoSox, NY Yankees, TBay, Cleveland, Texas. And, only 5 of 15 AL teams finished with winning overall records -- the 1st 4 listed in the previous sentence + ChiSox. Houston won the AL West with an overall record of 50% even-stephen in wins v. losses -- the 1st MLB division winner in history without a winning record.
Including the WS, even the once-dominant AL East had a sub-par year at 51.8% (127-118) in matches against NL squads -- down from 55.5% in 2025. AL East sides have lost the last 3 WS match-ups
After 14 consecutive AL triumphs from 2004 through 2017, the NL has now won the inter-league contest for 6 of 9 seasons starting with 2018. The AL still owns a slight advantage with 20 winning regular seasons and a 51% overall record over 30 years since interleague regular season play started in 1997.
The "brain gap" between AL and NL team managements shrank over the years thanks to:
- the brain drain of smarty-pants and smarty-skirt executives who started with AL squads before crossing over to manage NL teams;
- the effects of age on AL owners no longer content to hire the best baseball minds and stay out of the way -- e.g., sad decline of the Red Sox as John Henry ages into his dotage taking the BoSox down with him. Of course, just as I picked on the Red Sox as the poster boy for AL decline, the BoSox tied their franchise record with a 15-game winning streak and soon afterward put together a 9-game streak.
The AL's remaining claim to superiority is winning 11 of the past 13 All-Star contests, 23 of the last 28 to reach a decision and 29 of the past 37.
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