Streaking Indians could be first MLB team with 20 straight wins to win World Series
No team with a 20-game winning streak in the regular season has ever won the World Series
By
Matt Snyder
•
1 min read
The Cleveland Indians have won 20 games in a row. Break out whatever superlative you please and it fits here. Twenty wins in a row in baseball is off the hook. We know that. The Indians players surely know it. Everyone does.
Looking ahead, though, the Indians can now make a different kind of history. They need to go on to win the World Series now.
The players, coaching staff and manager Terry Francona can't think like this, of course, but we can. They need to look at every given game the way they've already been doing so. Stick with what works and all.
For fans and analysts alike, on the other hand, we're allowed to look ahead and frame the context. Not only do the Indians now carry the longest World Series championship drought in all of baseball (1948), but they came painfully close to winning for the great city of Cleveland last year and this team is even better.
I'm not even talking about any of that, though.
The Indians get the chance to try to make even more history. pic.twitter.com/IxNfCtwnhy
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) September 13, 2017
Uh oh.
It's actually not that huge a deal. It's not a jinx or any nonsense like that. The 20-game winning streak has just happened so infrequently.
Here's the list of teams in previously in MLB history (World Series era) to have won at least 20 games in a row and what happened to them in the postseason:
| Team | Year | Winning streak | Postseason result |
|---|---|---|---|
New York Giants | 1916 | 26 | *None |
1935 | 21 | Lost World Series to Tigers, 4-2 | |
2002 | 20 | Lost ALDS to Twins, 3-2 |
*The Giants are an incredible story. They won the 26 in a row, but also only went 86-66 on the season, finishing fourth in the NL, seven games out of pennant (won by the rival Dodgers).
As if you couldn't tell from the "nonsense" mention above, I don't believe in junk like jinxes or curses. Instead, I'd look at this like an opportunity.
The 2017 Cleveland Indians already had the opportunity to break the longest MLB World Series drought and now they can become the first team ever to win 20-plus straight games in the regular season and then take the World Series title. Good stuff all around.
Rock on, Cleveland.
