Making history almost every time they take the field, the Cleveland Indians won their 21st straight game on Wednesday, 5-3 over the Detroit Tigers, to set an American League record and join only two other teams in the past 101 years to win that many in a row.
Jay Bruce hit a three-run homer off Buck Farmer (4-3), and Mike Clevinger (10-5) won his consecutive straight start as the Indians matched the 1935 Chicago Cubs for the second-longest winning streak since 1900. The run has put Cleveland within five wins of catching the 1916 New York Giants, who won 26 straight without a loss but whose century-old mark includes a tie.
Roberto Perez added a homer in the seventh and four Cleveland relievers finished. Cody Allen got his 27th save, giving the Indians the league’s longest streak since the AL was founded in 1901.
During the streak, which began with a 13-6 win over Boston ace Chris Sale on Aug. 23, the Indians have outscored their opponents 139-35 and trailed in only four of 189 innings. Cleveland starters are 19-0 with a 1.70 ERA, and the Indians have totaled more homers (40) than runs allowed.
Cleveland opens a four-game series Thursday night at home against Kansas City, which was outscored 20-0 during its three-day visit last month.
Yankees 3 Rays 2: In New York, a disappointed Jaime Garcia didn’t even look at manager Joe Girardi when the pitcher was removed one out shy of qualifying for his first win with the Yankees, and New York edged Tampa Bay to take two of three games in a series moved from Florida to Citi Field because of Hurricane Irma.
Making his first appearance since Aug. 30, Garcia allowed only Kevin Kiermaier’s solo homer in 4 2/3 innings. Chad Green (5-0) struck out three of his four batters and Aroldis Chapman got four outs for his 18th save in 22 chances. Chapman fanned four and earned his first save of more than three outs since Game 5 of last year’s World Series for the Chicago Cubs. The Yankees won their fourth straight series.
A pro-Yankees crowd of 13,159 raised the total for the series to 49,510. Tickets were $25 each day.
Tampa Bay was heading back home after the game and returns to Tropicana Field for a five-game homestand starting Friday against Boston.
Chris Archer (9-10) dropped to 0-3 in his last four starts, giving up three runs in four-plus innings. He needed 92 pitches to get 12 outs.
New York took a 3-0 lead in the second, when Todd Frazier hit an RBI single and Brett Gardner had a two-run single.
White Sox 5 Royals 3: In Kansas City, Missouri, Jose Abreu hit a tiebreaking sacrifice fly in the ninth inning, and Chicago won a series in Kansas City for the first time since 2015.
Tim Anderson singled, went to second on a wild pitch by Scott Alexander (4-4) and stole third before scoring on Abreu’s fly ball. Avisail Garcia added an RBI single to make it 5-3.
Juan Minaya (3-2) pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings for the win. Last-place Chicago took two of three at Kauffman Stadium, winning its first road series since June 16-18 and damaging the Royals’ wild-card hopes.
Adam Engel hit a two-run double for Chicago, which has won four of five. White Sox starter Lucas Giolito gave up only Salvador Perez’s solo homer in 6 1/3 innings.
Dodgers 4 Giants 1: In San Francisco, Yu Darvish and two relievers combined on a five-hitter, Cody Bellinger hit his 37th home run and Los Angeles won back-to-back games for the first time in nearly three weeks, beating San Francisco.
The win lowered the Dodgers’ magic number to seven for clinching the NL West crown. Los Angeles secured at least a wild-card berth in the playoffs Tuesday night with a victory that ended its 11-game losing streak, the club’s longest since moving to the West Coast in 1958.
Darvish (9-12), acquired from Texas at the July 31 trade deadline, was 2-3 with a 5.34 ERA in six previous starts with Los Angeles but was crisp in his first career outing against San Francisco. The All-Star right-hander pitched three-hit ball over seven scoreless innings. He struck out five and walked none.
Bellinger hit a two-run drive off Matt Moore (5-14). It’s the Dodgers’ first series win in San Francisco since September 2014.

Source: Arab News