The Indians have won their last two games, giving them just their third two-game winning streak of the season, but also their second such streak in the last week. What they still haven't been able to do this year is win a third game in a row. To be 39 games into the schedule, and not yet have won three of them in a row, seems pretty poor. Sure enough, the only other MLB team that hasn't won three in a row already is Oakland, owner of the worst record in baseball. As I so often do, I found myself wondering how this season-opening stretch compares with that of other years.
Year to year, how long has it taken the Indians to get their first three- (or more) game winning streak? Here's a list of the longest such season-opening draughts in franchise history. The game number you see refers to the game in which the Indians got their third consecutive win, meaning that if they opened the season by winning their first three games, the number listed would be 3. If the Indians win tonight, their number for this season would be 40.
- 1) 1902: 71
- 2) 2009: 48
- t3) 1969: 46
- t3) 1991: 46
- t5) 1970: 45
- t5) 2003: 45
- 7) 1973: 42
- t8) 1912: 41
- t8) 1975: 41
Those are all of the seasons in which the team waited longer than 35 games before its first 3-game winning streak. Notably, none of those seasons came between 1912 and 1969. From 1947 to 1969, it never took longer than 20 games before the Tribe won three in a row.
The last time the Indians won their first three games of the season was 1998. They did that 11 times through 1966, but have done it only 3 times in the 49 seasons since then.
If the Indians win tonight, this will have been the 10th-longest wait for the season's first 3-game winning streak in franchise history. If they lose tonight, it'll mean the wait is at least 43 games, pushing it into the top seven streaks. If they haven't gotten there ten days from now, they'll be looking at the second-longest wait in franchise history. Gold help us if they go on to surpass the delay from 1902.