This year the Tampa Bay Rays won the AL East with 97 wins, by far the most wins in their history.  The Red Sox ended up with 95 wins this year, the first time ever finishing below the Rays.  Now the two are set to face off in the ALCS.

The graph above shows the number of wins for both teams in each season since the Rays birth in 1998.  Prior to this year, the closest the two teams ever finished was in 2000, when the Red Sox finished with only 16 more wins than the Rays.

(Data from baseball-reference)