Cleveland faces a stiff challenge, but the streak lives on

It was the first walk-off win by the Indians during their streak, in which they have outscored their opponents 142-37. The Indians do now hold the record for the longest streak in American League history – and the second-longest streak the MLB ever has seen. By the time Game 7 of last year’s World Series rolled around, he felt Miller was exhausted.

Entering Thursday’s game, their previous low point in win probability during the win streak was 35.5 percent, and their average low point in win probability was 44.8 percent, including five games where it never dipped below 50-50.

There’s a reason so few teams reach a +104 run differential over the course of a season: it’s hard to do.

The curious circumstances of his being hit were apparently enough for Wolcott to ask his fellow umps if they thought he’d been hit on goal. The team that embraced the “#Moneyball” ideology won their 20th game on September 5th, 2002 on Scott Hatteberg’s walk-off home run, a moment that was re-created in 2011 in the film “Moneyball ” starring Brad Pitt.

After last year’s heartbreaking loss to the Cubs, the Indians’ bid to return to the World Series despite increased scar tissue should be one of the stories of the postseason.

“They’ve been an incredible team to watch”, Miller said Thursday before the Indians opened a four-game series against the Kansas City Royals. The Tigers lost to the Rangers in the American League Championship Series and then the Rangers fell to the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series. Sherrod Brown has been celebrating the team’s 22-game winning streak on social media, tweeting his congratulations to the team as it racked up victories.

“I wasn’t there”, he said, drawing laughter. The 1916 New York Giants won 26 in a row. Now, they’ve clinched a playoff berth and have the best record in the AL and are within spitting distance of claiming homefield advantage throughout the playoffs from the struggling Dodgers.

Another team who started hot but has been struggling lately is the Houston Astros.

On this night, the Indians doubled that count with four trailed innings. “You just had a feeling”, Tomlin said. “Their lineup is stacked and they have some extra motivation because of what happened with Hurricane Harvey”. That much, we can all agree on.

But even though the win streak itself has been a wild ride, Thursday night’s game was the signature win to top all other signature wins in what has been and continues to be a historic run.

The postseason begins on October 3rd when the American League wild-card teams face off on ESPN.