Streakers

     Immediate disclaimer--this is NOT in any way an expose about those young women and men who shed their clothes in the mid-1970's and ran amok around college campuses. This included the University of Delaware, where a raucous, beer-infused Thursday night campus quad became even more interesting for this aspiring law student when I abandoned the tedious studying inside the library to survey the tumult.

     Instead, the nature of the streak in Major League Baseball has been one of the great topics of the season. Heading the list is the remarkable streak of the defending American League champion Cleveland Indians, who won 22 straight games. At the bottom of the list is Aaron Judge's 37 game streak of at least 1 strikeout per game, setting a single season record, yet avoiding by 1 game the all-time record of consecutive games with a strikeout which was set by a pitcher, Bill Stoneman, in 1971-72.

     Then there is this season's schizophrenic team--the Los Angeles Dodgers. This team had managed to go 91-36, which included three winning streaks of at least 10 games. They had a 53 game streak of winning games that they had a lead at some point during the contest. Only to be outdone by an incredible 11 game losing skein, which really was 16 out of 17 games with a loss. But not to despair, Dodger faithful, this is the 5th year in a row that the team has won the N.L. West.

     Just as we are not to be too upset about Aaron Judge's performance in this, his rookie season. After all, even if he set another dubious record in striking out a total of 200 times--the most by a rookie, his proclivity for striking out hardly diminishes his incredible accomplishment--the first rookie ever to amass 45+ home runs, more than 100 R.B.I. and 100 runs scored.

     Speaking of sluggers, Giancarlo Stanton had a 6 game homer streak in August as he makes an assault on Roger Maris' 61 total. That is 2 short of the MLB record, held by 3 people--including his manager, Don Mattingly.  Given that Stanton is not associated with steroids and home run hitters like Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire are, should the Miami Marlins' star break Maris total, it would be a feat.

     Let's also return to the Indians. They have 29 out the last 31 contests. Cleveland has won 28 straight games while allowing 4 or less runs. Moreover, the Tribe has not lost 2 games in a row since July. On Friday, when Seattle beat the Indians 3-1, the Mariners stopped a modest 5 game Cleveland winning streak and a more impressive 14 game road winning streak, while Seattle ended a 6 game losing streak of their own. Cleveland is the first team since the 1935-36 Chicago Cubs to have two consecutive seasons with winning streaks of 14+ games. Additionally, the Indians became the first team to have +100 run differential in 19 consecutive games AND were the first team since the 1923 New York Giants to hold the opposition to 32 or fewer runs over a 19 game span. No wonder Cleveland has the best record in MLB and is trying to secure home field advantage all the way through the World Series.

     Cleveland's ace pitcher and 2016 Cy Young Award winner, Corey Kluber, has fashioned some streaks of his own en route to a 17-4 record in 2017. Kluber has had two 5 game win streaks, and he was victorious today, in addition to raising his record to 18-4, he now has a 6 game winning streak and a 5 game winning streak.

     Other pitching streaks of note included the fact that when almost-certain Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw surrendered a grand slam home run to the Philadelphia Phillies earlier this month, it represented the first time in his illustrious career that he had given up a bases full homer. Baltimore Orioles left-handed closer, Zach Britton, saw his MLB record 60 game save streak come to an end in August. Boston ace starter, lefty Chris Sale, set an MLB record with 10 straight double digit strikeout performances; he is also the fastest to reach 1,500 strikeouts in MLB history. Alex Wood of the Dodgers opened the season with 11 straight victories. The surprising Arizona Diamondbacks, the probable NL Wild Card Game host, had a streak of 9 consecutive games where D-backs pitchers recorded 10 or more strikeouts of their opponents.

     Pitchers with ongoing streaks of 200+ strikeouts in a season are Max Scherzer of Washington (6) and Sale (5). This will be Kershaw's 9th straight season with an E.R.A. of under 3.00. Justin Verlander, the former Detroit Tigers' ace now pitching for the Houston Astros, has manufactured a 6 game winning streak, including 4-0 since the trade to Houston, accompanied by a minuscule 0.64 E.R.A.; he has had 200+ strikeouts in 11 of 12 years, interrupted only in his injury-plagued 2015 season. Verlander's dating Kate Upton is in another, very different category.

     The longest consecutive game hitting streaks in the AL was 21 games by Whit Merrifield of Kansas City and 19 games in the NL from Odubel Herrera of Philadelphia. Team streaks to offer are the 13 consecutive wins by the D-backs and the 69 consecutive days in first place in the NL East by the Colorado Rockies, who are battling Milwaukee and St. Louis for the final NL Wild Card spot. In a 16-0 rout of the San Diego Padres, the Minnesota Twins became the first team to hit homers in the first 7 innings of a game.

     Those are impressive streaks. But 2017 has been more than just the aforementioned MLB and league records and achievements I have chronicled. There have been numerous records set, both on a team and individual levels which do not involve streaks.

     The Yankees and Cubs set the MLB mark for strikeouts in a game at 48 in an 18 inning game. In a 12 inning game, the Dodgers and Brewers set the NL record for strikeouts in a game at 42; Milwaukee tied its own MLB record of 26 strikeouts in a game.  On June 3, an MLB mark of 7 grand slams were hit in a single day. On June 24, three Oakland A's rookies hit their first career home runs in the same game, another MLB record; all 3 homers came off of one pitcher, James Sheilds, who also recorded his 2,000 strikeout in that affair. The Shields involvement is a de facto MLB record--most homers by a rookie off of a pitcher who has 2000+ career strikeouts.

     George Springer of the Astros hit 4 lead off homers in his first 9 games of the season, a record. Trey Mancini of Baltimore hit 7 homers in his first 12 career games, tying an MLB record. Angels slugger Albert Pujols became the all-time Dominican-born record holder for R.B.I's and became the first player to hit a grand slam for his 600th homer. Aaron Judge is the first player to hit 13 homers in his first 26 games; Judge joined McGwire as the only two players to have hit 30 home runs in his first season before the All-Star Game. Scooter Gennett of Cincinnati is the first player to have 5 hits, 4 homers and 10 Runs batted in during a game. Dodgers' rookie sensation Cody Bellinger was the fastest to have 4 multi-homer games, doing that in just 45 contests and when he hit his 21st home run in his 51st career game, that, too, was a MLB record. In recording his 3,000 hit, Texas Rangers' third baseman Adrian Beltre was the first Dominican-born player to do so. Red Sox outfielder Mookie Betts tied a record with 8 R.B.I.'s in a game while batting leadoff. Ichiro Suzuki, currently playing for Miami, established the record for most career base hits by a foreign-born player. Toronto Blue Jays' Steve Pearce hit 2 walk off grand slams, which tied the MLB record. Rhys Hoskins of the Phillies hit 11 homers in 18 games, which is the fastest since 1913; Hoskins did it in a record 17 less at bats. San Francisco pitcher Madison Bumgarner is the first hurler to hit 2 homers on Opening Day.

     So now, when you have had enough numbers for one season, I leave my readers with 2 thoughts. First, the MLB record for the most homers in a season was set on September 19. Second, how many more homers and records will be broken or tied in this last 8 games of the regular season?