Jays first since '54 with two 11-game win streaks
On Thursday, the Blue Jays prevailed at home over the Athletics by a score of 4-2 (box score). In doing so, they notched their 11th straight win. As it so happens, the Blue Jays of 2015 also registered an 11-game win streak from June 2 through June 14. All of that puts the 2015 Jays in rather elite company …
Toronto wins AGAIN – @BlueJays are 1st team with multiple 11-game win streaks in a season since 1954 Indians. pic.twitter.com/VshYym4N3A
— MLB (@MLB) August 13, 2015
The ’54 Tribe of course barged to 111 wins in 154 regular season games, and won the pennant by 8.0 games over the 103-win Yankees. That year, they won 11 in a row from May 13-23 and again from Sept. 8-20. Also mixed were two separate nine-game win streaks and an eight-game win streak. Indeed, the Indians of 1954 would be remembered as one of the great teams in baseball history if only they hadn’t been upset by the Giants and 23-year-old NL MVP Willie Mays in the World Series.
As for the current Blue Jays model, they’ve now won 14 of their last 15, and in doing so they’ve gone from 8.0 games out and in fourth place in the AL East to this …
Improved fortunes, are what those are.
Coming into Thursday’s action the SportsLine Projection Model gave Toronto a 92.9 percent chance of making the postseason, and those odds have presumably been nudged upward with the win over Oakland.
That GM Alex Anthopoulos’s bold deadline additions coincided with such a hot streak has certainly invigorated the Jays’ fan base in a big way. The longest current playoff drought in major pro sports will almost certainly come to an end, but the Jays have very legitimate designs on the trophy.
Yep, the Blue Jays did it again on Thursday. (USATSI)
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