Indians win 20 games in a row, tie 2002 A’s for longest AL win streak of all time

Corey Kluber threw a complete-game shutout and the Indians won again, tying with the 2002 Oakland A’s for the longest win streak in American League history.

Kluber needed only 113 pitches to get the job done, allowing just five hits all night and no runs from Detroit’s offense. It wasn’t as dominating a win as others in the win streak have been, but they still had more runs than the other team and that’s all that matters in the end.

In 18 out of 20 of the streak’s wins, the Indians’ starting pitcher got the win, and while pitching wins are generally unhelpful in this case it’s indicative of just how unhittable and dominant the team has been throughout. This game is the seventh shutout of Cleveland’s streak.

Francisco Lindor started the game with a home run into the left field bleachers, the 30th of his career and his second leadoff home run this season. Lindor, throughout the streak, leads the team in hits, runs, home runs, and runs batted in. Suffice to say he’s had quite a hand in Cleveland’s winning ways.

Just as in the majority of games in this unbelievable streak Cleveland never trailed after that and never looked back en route to tying a team 15 years ago for the longest AL win streak ever.

They have still only trailed for four total innings this entire streak, which is getting more and more difficult to wrap your head around as they go.

They’ll face the Tigers for the third time tomorrow to break Oakland’s streak, and a fourth time in a row on Thursday to extend it if they get that far.

The Tigers held their own well enough tonight despite not taking home the win. Can they take advantage of having someone besides Corey Kluber on the mound tomorrow to break it? Probably not, but we shall see.