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In their defense, 17 of those consecutive losses came on the road.

(More on the ‘61 Phils after the jump.)

As you can see from the chart below, Philadelphia went eight games (plus two innings) without even holding a single lead. I have no idea if this is a record or not, but one would think it’s got to be in the top five all-time. In all, the Phillies led 10 times for a total of 12 innings (a lead lost in the opponent’s immediate at bat counts as zero innings). The Mariners, on the other hand, have had nine leads lasting ten innings so far -- in nine fewer games.

An interesting thing about the Phillies is that their leadoff men had the lowest OBP of any batting slot on the team, save the pitcher hole. They finished 47-107, but jumped to 81-80 in 1962. This improvement comes with a couple of mighty big asterisks, though. For one thing, they finished nine games below their Pythagorean projection in 1961 and six games over their projection in 1962. For another, they went 31-5 against the two expansion teams in 1962, including a staggering 17-1 versus the Colt .45s. This was, by three games over Los Angeles, the best combined head-to-head record against New York and Houston.

Leads held during the 1961 Phillies losing streak