Is This Year's AL the Greatest League in MLB History?

Major League Baseball's regular season will end today, with not one, but TWO one-game playoff games to determine division champions in the NL Central and NL West.  This is the first time in MLB history that two one-game playoff tiebreakers will be played in the same season.  The Brewers face off against the Cubs at Wrigley at Noon Central, and the Rockies and Dodgers will play each other in Chavez Ravine at 3 p.m. Central.  The winner of the Brewers/Cubs game wins the NL Central and gets the #1 seed in the NL.  The loser will host the loser of the Rockies/Dodgers game in the NL Wild Card game on Tuesday, and the winner of that game will play the winner of the Brewers/Cubs game in the NLDS.  Meanwhile, the winner of the Rockies/Dodgers game will get the NL West crown and the #2 seed, and will play the Braves in the NLDS.  Did you get all that?

But forget the NL for a minute.  This year's American League is making a case for the best league in a single season.  Here are some impressive stats:

• The Red Sox won 108 games, the Astros won 103 games, and the Yankees won 100 games.  This is only the 7th time in MLB history that three teams have won 100 games in the same season, but it is the first time all three 100+-win teams are in the same league.
• In addition to the Red Sox, Astros, and Yankees, the As won 97 games, the Indians won 91 games, and the Rays won 90 games.
• With four teams with 97 or more wins, this year's AL joins the 1977 AL and the 1999 NL as the only leagues to have four 97+-game winners.
• With six teams with 90 or more wins, this year's AL joins the 1977, 2002, and 2013 AL as the only leagues with six 90+-game winners.
• The defending World Series champion Astros have now won 100 or more games in consecutive seasons.  They are the first team since the Cardinals in 2004 and 2005 to do that.  
• The Astros' 57 road wins are the most since the Mariners won 59 games on the road in 2001, and those two teams are the only two teams since the MLB moved to the divisional format in 1969 to have 57 or more road wins in a season.  Actually, they're the only two teams since the Taft Administration to achieve that feat.  In the World Series era (1903 to the present), the only other teams to win 57 or more road games in a season prior to 1969 were the 1909 Cubs (who won 57 road games, but didn't win the NL pennant, thanks to Honus Wagner and the Pirates) and the 1906 Cubs (who won an astounding 60 road games, but lost to the White Sox in the World Series -- and don't you ever forget it, Cubs fans).
• The Astros also become the first team since the 2002-2003 Yankees to have 50+ road wins in consecutive seasons.
• The Red Sox's (is that the possessive of Red Sox?) 57 home wins are the most since, well, last year's Dodgers, but they're the first team to have 50+ home wins and road wins in a season since the 2011 Phillies.  Here are the teams since 1903 that have had 50+ home and road wins in the same season (teams with a * won the World Series, and teams with a ** lost in the World Series, while the rest didn't advance to the World Series):
• 2018 Red Sox (57 H, 51 R)
• 2011 Phillies (52 H, 50 R)
• 2008 Angels (50 H, 50 R)
• 2005 Cardinals (50 H, 50 R)
• 2003 Yankees (50 H, 51 R)**
• 2002 Yankees (52 H, 51 R)
• 2001 Mariners (57 H, 59 R)
• 1998 Yankees (62 H, 52 R)*
• 1998 Braves (56 H, 50 R)
• 1997 Braves (50 H, 51 R)
• 1993 Braves (51 H, 53 R)
• 1993 Giants (50 H, 53 R)
• 1990 Athletics (51 H, 52 R)**
• 1988 Athletics (54 H, 50 R)**
• 1986 Mets (55 H, 53 R)*
• 1984 Tigers (53 H, 51 R)
• 1980 Yankees (53 H, 50 R)
• 1980 Orioles (50 H, 50 R)
• 1975 Reds (64 H, 44 R)*
• 1974 Dodgers (52 H, 50 R)**
• 1965 Twins (51 H, 51 R)**
• 1961 Tigers (50 H, 51 R)
• 1954 Indians (59 H, 52 R)**
• 1944 Cardinals (54 H, 51 R)*
• 1941 Yankees (51 H, 50 R)*
• 1939 Yankees (52 H, 54 R)*
• 1927 Yankees (57 H, 53 R)*
• 1909 Pirates (59 H, 54 R)*
• 1907 Cubs (54 H, 53 R)*
• 1906 Cubs (56 H, 60 R)**
• 1905 Giants (54 H, 51 R)*
• 1904 Giants (56 H, 50 R) (no World Series that year)

Of course, as we all know, statistics don't mean a thing once the playoffs roll around, so who knows what teams will actually win the World Series.  But regardless, the NL playoffs will already be off to an exciting start after today's two one-game playoffs, and the AL playoffs are shaping up to be a bloodbath.  Whoever survives the AL should be in a position to take the World Series crown, and there isn't a team in the AL who I would overlook as a possible World Series champ.  Of course, I'm rooting for the Astros, but if they don't win it all, I'd want it to be the Brewers or Rockies, since neither of those franchises has won a World Series before.