MLB / cleveland indians

By Zane Miller The Cleveland Indians (now Cleveland Guardians) 22-game winning streak lasting from August 23rd to September 14th, 2017 was one of the longest regular season win streaks in the history of Major League Baseball. It set a new record for the longest such streak in the American League, passed the 1935 Chicago Cubs for the second-longest winning streak in MLB history, and came up just four games short of matching the record 26 wins set by the 1916 New York Giants. However, this type of winning streak obviously did not just happen. At the time of the start of the winning streak, the Indians were already having a strong season, leading the American League Central and appearing poised to make another run at the World Series championship that they had come so close to taking one year ago. Yet at the same time, many of the teams that the Indians played during this streak were not having good seasons themselves, as the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees were the only teams the Indians played during this stretch that finished above the .500 mark in win percentage at the end of the season. Be that as it may, it took every player on the team working together to make it happen, however it is hard to tell, at a glance, exactly which players contributed how much. This is why I wanted to count down the top five Indians players from the 22-game win streak. 5. #43 Josh Tomlin- P Tomlin earned player of the game honors in two of his three starts during the winning streak, and even in his third start he didn’t too badly there either, only allowing one run over six innings. Tomlin was able to come through in the clutch, keeping the win streak alive in two games where the offense scored less than five runs, including what was to be the final game of the streak. Tomlin allowed just four earned runs over 10 and two-thirds total innings, or .392 runs allowed per inning. To put this in perspective, .8 runs per inning would be considered a pretty good rating to have, meaning Tomlin put the Indians in a much better position to win than most other pitchers would have during that stretch. 4. #11 Jose Ramirez- 3B In the two games that Ramirez was the player of the game, Ramirez drove in a total of five RBIs for the Indians, or .278 RBI per inning that he played. Also during the course of the 22 games played, Ramirez was able to increase his season batting average from .298 to .314, which eventually became .318 at season’s end, however during the streak alone his average was an astounding .405. 3. #10 Edwin Encarnacion- DH Like Ramirez, Encarnacion had five RBIs over the course of the streak as well, however his batting average was almost 50 points lower than Ramirez’s at the time of the beginning of the streak at .250. While his batting average did not improve much, only gaining a net of two points at the end, Enarnacion hit six home runs for the Indians, moving his slugging up from .483 to .500. 2. #47 Trevor Bauer- P Bauer won what was probably the two toughest games to keep the streak alive in, being the 2-1 victory over the Yankees and the 3-2 win over the Orioles. However, Bauer also did much more than that, allowing an impressive three runs over 10 and one-third innings, or just .297 runs per inning. 1. #7 Yan Gomes- C While there were definitely a number of good choices for the #1 slot this time around, Gomes’ seven RBIs played a big role in swinging the momentum of games that could have ended up much differently. While the two games that he was the game MVP for were blowout games, had he not come through with the runners in scoring position, those games could have gone vastly different ways for the Indians and there may not even have been a winning streak to speak of.