 Both teams entered the tiebreaker with long histories of frustration and disappointment.California had previously won three AL West division titles (1979, 1982, and 1986), but never advanced to the World Series.In particular, the Angels lost a 2–0 series lead in the then-best-of-five 1982 ALCS to the Milwaukee Brewers, and were one strike away from defeating the Boston Red Sox in Game 5 of the 1986 ALCS but ended up losing that game and the next two to lose the best-of-seven series that they had led 3–1.