Friday, September 8, 2017

Silver Streak





It's a streaky time in Major League Baseball right now.
The D-backs, winners of a franchise-record 13 consecutive games, were off on Thursday before beginning a homestand against the Padres on Friday (9:40 p.m. ET).

Franchise-best winning streaks for all 30 teams

But in their absence, the red-hot Indians kept things going with an 11-2 victory that completed a four-game sweep of the White Sox in Chicago. Cleveland now heads home with a franchise-record winning streak of its own, having taken 15 straight contests going into Friday's tilt against the Orioles at Progressive Field (7:10 p.m. ET).


Here are some facts and figures to know about this unprecedented pair of streaks:
• The Indians and D-backs, whose runs both began on Aug. 24, make this the first time since at least 1900 that two teams have had active winning streaks of at least 13 games on the same day, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The closest it had come to happening were a pair of 12-game streaks on Aug. 9, 2013, when the Braves (13 games) and Tigers (12) combined to accomplish that feat. Atlanta went on to stretch its streak to 14, but Detroit lost an extra-inning game at Yankee Stadium that night.
• There haven't been many other times in MLB history when two teams have had winning streaks of a dozen or more games overlap. The 2001 Mariners, en route to their 116-win season, won 15 straight from May 23-June 8, while the Cubs won 12 straight from May 19-June 2. The 1999 Orioles won 13 straight from Sept. 7-22, while the Astros won 12 in a row from the 3rd to the 14th. That's all for the Wild Card era. Beyond that, the 1982 Cardinals and Braves, the '65 Dodgers and Giants, the '51 Giants and Indians and the '39 Reds and Yankees also had parts of 12-plus-game winning streaks overlap.
• The last time that two teams even put together streaks of at least 13 wins in the same season was 1999. The Padres won 14 straight from June 18-July 2 and the Orioles 13 straight from Sept. 7-22.
• The Indians now have surpassed their 14-game winning streak from last season, which was the longest in franchise history. That makes Cleveland the first team since the 1935-36 Chicago Cubs -- and only the third club in MLB history -- to have 14-game winning streaks in back-to-back seasons. The only other club to accomplish the feat was the 1912-13 New York Giants.
• The Tribe has a ways to go to catch that 1935 Cubs team, which owns the longest winning streak in MLB history at 21 games. The Giants recorded 26 straight wins without a loss in 1916, though there was a tie in the midst of the streak.
• Cleveland also still would have five more wins to go to match the longest streak in American League history, which is 20 games by the 2002 Athletics. That also had been the most recent streak by any MLB team to reach the 15-game mark.
• Before the Indians and D-backs embarked on their streaks on Aug. 24, the longest winning streaks in the Majors this season were 11 games by the Astros (May 25-June 5) and Dodgers (July 4-19).
• Other than the 2016 and '17 Indians, the last team to win at least 14 straight games within a season was the '13 Braves, who reeled off 14 in a row from July 26-Aug. 9. The last AL team to do so was the 2002 A's.
• Both the D-backs and Indians have beaten fellow postseason contenders during their winning streaks. The Indians started their streak with a win over the Red Sox and swept the Yankees from Aug. 28-30. The D-backs have now swept the Dodgers twice and the Rockies once during their run.
Cleveland rocking and rolling
• The Indians have outscored their opponents 109-28 during the streak. They've scored in double digits five times, and the pitching staff has completed four shutouts in that span.
• In terms of run differential, at +81, this is the best 15-game stretch in Indians history. Cleveland's run differential was +55 (82-27) during last year's 14-game winning streak.
• The Indians have scored early and often during the streak, plating the first run in all 15 games. They've outscored their opponents 53-11 over the first three innings in that span.

  Corey Kluber's gem Thursday (seven innings, two runs, 13 strikeouts) marked the 13th time in the Tribe's 15-game streak in which the team's starting pitcher gave up no more than two runs. Kluber has now allowed five runs over 23 innings during that stretch, while Carlos Carrasco has allowed two runs in 23 innings. Those two pitchers have combined for 52 strikeouts and two walks in that time.

• At 84-56, the Indians are a season-high 28 games over .500. They finished last season 27 games above .500 with a 94-67 record.
D-backs slithering toward history
• The D-backs' 13th straight win -- which completed a sweep of the Dodgers on Wednesday -- set a new franchise record, passing a 12-game streak from June 18-30, 2003.




• While Arizona's winning streak did not end Wednesday at Dodger Stadium, another streak did. When the Dodgers plated a run in the first inning, it closed the book on the D-backs' run of 97 consecutive innings without trailing. According to Elias, that is tied with the 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers for the second-longest streak in MLB history, behind only the 1942 Yankees (100 innings).
• Prior to Wednesday, Arizona had not trailed at any point in 10 straight games, tying an MLB record. The 1991 Mets were the last club to accomplish that feat.

  Even with all that leading, the D-backs have played their fair share of tight games during their streak. Their first three wins were all by one run, and eight of the 13 wins have ended in a save, with closer Fernando Rodney notching seven of those. The Indians, by contrast, have needed just four saves on their 14-game win streak.




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