The Pecan Park Eagle

First fell Custer,
Bums and Braves.
Next up Astros?
Dodgers? Knaves?

We’ll find out sooner than we may wish to know, but for now, the Cleveland Indians are making a mark that may stand for quite a while in the MLB team record books. By putting another hurt on the Detroit Tigers by 2-0 on Tuesday night, the Tribe stretched their current winning streak to an AL record-tying 20 games, matching the 2002 Oakland Athletics, and standing together, at least, for today, as a tie for the 2nd best winning streak in the MLB since the 1916 New York Giants of he NL recorded 26 consecutive September wins without a defeat.

What most sources don’t tell you, however, is that the Giant record “streak” of 1916 was interrupted by a 1-1 tie game with Pittsburgh on 9/18/16. I don’t know the reason. Round up the usual suspects from that era and pick one: darkness or rain. – The sequence, completely stated, was that the Giants won 12, tied a game, and then continued to win 14 more before losing for the first time since they started compiling 26 wins on all of the previous 27 times they took the field and played a game that never included a loss.

So, if that 1916 Giant tie-blight sort of contaminates your idea of a pure streak, as it does my own, the true record might be listed more clearly as 21. And that one is owned by two NL representative clubs, the 1880 White Sox and the 1935 Cubs. Also tied for the 20-win mark on the MLB level are the St. Louis Maroons of the American Association and the Providence Grays of the National League, who both pulled their long win runs in the same 1884 season.

The Cleveland win kept their home field advantage lead over the Astro at 1.5 games in spite of the brilliant 8-inning, 1-hit shutout job that Justin Verlander did on the Angels with some 9th inning help from closer Giles, some great fielding, and a whole heaping helping of baseball gods luck.

The ALW division-clinching number for the Astros over the 2nd place Angels now drops to 5.

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AMERICAN LEAGUE WEST STANDINGS

THRU GAMES OF TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2017 

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AMERICAN LEAGUE WEST GAME SCORES

THRU GAMES OF TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2017

ASTROS 1 – ANGELS 0

MARINERS 10 – RANGERS 3                 

RED SOX 11 – ATHLETICS 1

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AMERICAN LEAGUE BATTING AVERAGE LEADERS

THRU GAMES OF TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2017

NR * LOST TIME ON THE DL HAS TEMPORARILY REMOVED CORREA FROM AN OFFICIAL QUALIFYING PLACE IN THE RANKING OF TOP 40 HITTERS.

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