Historic streak ends for Tribe

The party's over (for now).

However, a bigger party is on its way as postseason baseball is coming to Cleveland next month.

The most remarkable winning streak in baseball history ended Friday night when the Cleveland Indians lost a baseball game for the first time since August 23rd.

The Indians win streak ended at 22 games as the Kansas City Royals beat the Indians 4-3. For both teams, the game was no different than most games within the 162 game schedule. It was back and forth throughout but this time Cleveland did not come out on top.

The 1916 New York Giants still hold the MLB record for consecutive wins with 26 despite the controversial tie, according to MLB.

After the game, the Indians received a standing ovation from the sold-out Progressive Field crowd as the Indians stayed on the field returning the favor.

“I think our players wanted to show their appreciation,” Indians manager Terry Francona said, per USA Today. “It’s been pretty incredible how they’ve reacted and we just wanted to show our appreciation because we don’t take it for granted.”

Before the streak, Cleveland was 69-56 and in a close race for the AL Central. After the streak, the Indians have clinched the AL Central with a lead of more than 13 games. They are also the first AL team to clinch their respective division and two games ahead of the Astros for first place in the American League.

It’s clear how special the Indians streak was; however, some of the statistics are unimaginable.

Of the 22 games, 14 were decided by at least three runs with only one game, win number 22, being a walk-off.

Indians starters had a 1.77 ERA during the streak with pitchers such as Mike Clevinger stepping up. He allowed one earned run in four starts and 23 2/3 innings during the streak.

Terry Francona would use 36 different players during the streak due to the expanded rosters throughout MLB in the month of September. With that, not one player appeared in all twenty-two games. Giovanny Urshela, Francisco Lindor, and Carlos Santana appeared in 21 of the 22 games.

Key players such as Jason Kipnis, Andrew Miller, and Bradley Zimmer missed large portions or all of the streak due to injuries.

However, perhaps the biggest coincidence was how the streak ended. Trevor Bauer, who pitched at UCLA in college, was the starter for game number twenty three. In 2010, the Bruins started the season 22-0. Bauer would start and lose that game causing the Bruins to fall to 22-1.

Bauer also started Friday night and had some fun with it following the game, “22-game win streaks aren’t kind to me. In 2010 at UCLA we started off 22-0 and I was the losing pitcher in that game, too. Have someone else pitch for 23.”

The Indians started the streak with the third-best record in the American League as they were 7 1/2 games behind the Astros and 3 1/2 behind the Red Sox. They now lead the Astros by two games and currently home-field advantage throughout the duration of the American League Championship Series.

The ratings continued to rise as the streak reached 10, 15, and 20 games. Thursday, while the streak reached its climax, SportsTime Ohio drew its highest rating in history (20.44 household rating, equivalent of 306,000 homes).

Like last year, Indians fever has taken over AHS. Students and teachers are both excited to see what kind of run the Tribe can make this year.

Business teacher Kathy Wiemken, one of the Tribe’s biggest supporters, is leading the charge, “I was thrilled when they broke the record, however I am looking forward to a great run in October!”

Junior Julia Robinson is ecstatic to see how the Indians finish the year, “It was exciting watching the Indians make history and I can’t wait to see what they accomplish the rest of the year!”

Sophomore AJ Barner realizes just how special the streak was, “For them to break a record as significant as that, it shows just how special they are.”

AHS will surely cheer on the Indians as they head into postseason play and many hope that this is the year they finally finish on top.