Comebacks! They are wellsprings of sports uplift! Blown leads! They are conveyor belts of sports chagrin and misery! Let us discuss these very things!

So we're a little more than two months into the 2016 MLB season, and now we'll use this arbitrary juncture to talk about the teams and players that have performed notably when it comes to mounting comebacks and perpetrating blown leads. As is so often the case, the multitudinous and becoming Baseball-Reference was of much use for these purposes. Forthwith: bullet points, for today's busy sales professional ...

  • MLB as a whole this season has seen 365 comebacks/blown leads.
  • Ahead after one inning? This season, you've gone on to win the game 68.9 percent of the time.
  • Ahead after eight innings? This season, you've gone on to win the the game 96.9 percent of the time.
  • The Orioles lead all comers with 18 come-from-behind wins this season. In fact, they added a notch on the bedpost on Sunday against no less a foe than Aroldis Chapman of the Yankees.
  • Coming in just behind the O's are the Brewers. Of their 26 wins on the season, 16 have been of the comeback variety.
  • On the other, less handsome end of the continuum, we have the Reds and Twins. They've each registered 21 comeback losses in 2016. The Twins have somewhat offset all of that by notching 14 comeback wins, and the Reds have 13 comeback wins.
  • Two teams, the Orioles and Cubs, have 10 more comeback wins than they have blown leads. The O's have 18 against eight, and the Cubs have 15 against five. In matters related, both of these teams are good.
  • The Cubs have the fewest blown leads with, as mentioned, five. Next in line are the Indians with seven.
  • Circling back to the Twins, their combined 35 comebacks and blown leads makes for the highest figure in baseball this season. Consider that a penchant for drama, if you like.
  • Biggest comeback/blown lead of the year? As detailed in this very space, it was the recent Padres-Mariners tilt, in which the M's came back from down 12-2 to win.
  • The Mets have a somewhat modest nine comeback wins on the year, but meat-eating outfielder Yoenis Cespedes has more than done his part. Among players with at least 50 plate appearances when his team is behind, Cespedes leads all with a slash line of .380/.436/.840 in such situations. From where will you take his bat? People: his cold, dead hands.
  • On the team level, the Red Sox and their 13 come-from-behind wins (never mind their 16 leads for the moment) do a fine job of hitting the baseball when up against it. When they've been behind in 2016, the Red Sox are batting a robust .297/.353/.497. That of course flows from the fact that the Red Sox smack the ball around in pretty much all situations.
  • Frowny-face written in red ink for Astros closer Luke Gregerson, who "leads" all of baseball with five blown saves on the season. Blown saves equal blown leads. Did you know that?

Comebacks and blown leads! We have just discussed them. In the service of never being crestfallen, endeavor never to take the lead in anything ever again, so as to never blow a lead ever again.