Indians break AL record for longest winning streak
CLEVELAND: The Cleveland Indians earned an American League record 21st consecutive win yesterday with a 53 victory over the visiting Detroit Tigers.
The victory moved Cleveland past the 2002 Oakland Athletics for the AL record and tied the 1935 Chicago Cubs, who play in the National League, for the secondlongest winning streak in baseball history.
Only the 1916 New York Giants (26) had a longer run of success but their remarkable stretch, which is recognised by Major League Baseball as the longest in major league history, included a tie.The Giants won 12 games, had a tie and then won another 14 games.
‘‘It’s definitely fun to show up at the ballpark right now and I think the last thing anybody wants is an off day,’’ Cody Allen said after earning his 27th save of the season.
‘‘You never take anything for granted in this game, whether it’s a fivegame win streak or if you go and do something crazy like this and win 21 straight.’’
Cleveland has manhandled its opponents since the run began, a stretch during which every other AL team has lost at least eight games.
The Indians have outscored their opponents by a whopping 13432 margin during the streak and enjoyed topnotch pitching the entire way as well as a potent offence that has shown no signs of slowing down.
‘‘It starts with our [starting] rotation. There are a lot of talented arms in that group,’’ Allen said.
‘‘And offence. We score a lot of runs early and so with our rotation and scoring early it’s a recipe for success.’’
Cleveland, which lost the decisive seventh game of last year’s World Series in extra innings, has a comfortable lead atop the AL Central division and is a betting favourite to win it all this year.
Jay Bruce, who was acquired by Cleveland a month ago, hit a threerun shot in the bottom half of the first inning in front of a raucous home crowd yesterday that put the Indians ahead 31 and set the early tone.
The Indians padded their lead in the third on a single by Edwin Encarnacion but Detroit pulled to within 43 in the sixth inning when a throwing error allowed a pair of runs to score.
Roberto Perez responded with a home run in the seventh to give the Indians a tworun cushion.
‘‘Our guys are playing the right way to win,’’ Indians manager Terry Francona said in a postgame interview.
‘‘That’s the part that is meaningful.’’ — Reuters