Baseball-Cleveland Indians tie record, stretch win streak to 20
ByReuters
Published 13/09/2017 at 03:59 GMT
Sept 12 (Reuters) - The Cleveland Indians equaled an American League record 20th straight win on Tuesday when they beat the Detroit Tigers 2-0 to continue their amazing streak.
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Ace pitcher Corey Kluber tossed a complete game shutout to set off a celebration at Progressive Field in Cleveland.
Cleveland's run ties the 2002 Oakland Athletics whose own 20-game run inspired the movie 'Moneyball', which focused on the team's use of analytics to recruit players and overcome a restricted budget.
The Indians (89-56) now have a stranglehold on first place in the AL Central and are the talk of the majors.
"We haven't talked about it at all," Kluber told reporters. "I haven't heard anybody in there talking about how many games in a row we've won or anything like that.
"Obviously we're aware of it, just because of the attention that it gets, but it's not something that we're focusing on."
The Indians will host Detroit on Wednesday and bid to reach the Major League record of 21 consecutive wins set by the 1935 Chicago Cubs.
The 1916 New York Giants played the most games without a loss, which was 26, but recorded one tie during the stretch.
Kluber was the starting pitcher the last time the Indians tasted defeat, a 6-1 loss to Boston on Aug. 23, and said he was motivated not to be the pitcher to end the streak.
Kluber (16-4) was in prime form as he struck out eight and did not walk a batter.
Francisco Lindor hit his 30th home run of the season in the first inning while the Indians added another run in the sixth.
Cleveland have outscored opponents by a score of 134-32 during their run, dominating teams in a fashion that does not rely on one or two standouts.
"We're a real team. Everyone goes out there and tries to do whatever it takes to win that day," Lindor told an on-field reporter. "Everyone here is counting on each other and we're not thinking one guy has to do it.
"We continue to back each other up and hope for the best." (Reporting by Jahmal Corner in Los Angeles; editing by Sudipto Ganguly)
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