Last year, the Arizona Diamondbacks won just 84 regular season games and went to the World Series. Their opponent, the Texas Rangers, won just 90 after blowing a division lead they held for 139 of the 162 games.
The year before, the Philadelphia Phillies won just 87 games, finishing a distant third place in their division, 14 games back of both the 101-win Mets and Braves. But despite that, and being a mediocre 38-35 through 73 games (the same record the 2024 Boston Red Sox have through 73 games right now), those Phillies also went to the World Series.