After four months of underwhelming baseball, the Royals have inexplicably gone on a run, winning nine in a row. They’re just the fourth team in MLB history to be at least 24 games under .500 and go on a nine-game winning streak.
In other words, this is not normal. And tonight, the Royals have a chance to make
it even stranger. They can extend the streak to double digits, something that has previously only been done five times in club history. Let’s take a look back at the longest winning streaks in club history.
Nine in a row
- 1989 – The Royals were struggling to keep up with a juggernaut A’s team led by the “Bash Brothers” (Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire). But in August they made things interesting with a nine game winning streak that included six saves from Jeff Montgomery. It was part of a stretch where the team won 20 of 25 games and got within 1.5 games of first place Oakland by September, only to fade in the last few weeks
- 2002 – When people think of a Royals team having a winning streak when they are way out of it, 2002 comes to mind. The Royals were 33-54 a few games after the All-Star break, when they suddenly went on a nine-game winning streak under new manager Tony Pena that included two walk-off wins. The success would be short-lived. They would have two six-game losing streaks over the next few weeks and end up losing 100 games.
- 2003 – This is the famous 9-0 start to begin the year. It started with a crisp 3-0 win on Opening Day over the White Sox, leading to a perfect 5-0 homestand, a sweep of the awful Tigers, then two more wins in Cleveland. The hot start buoyed the team and kept them in first place for much of the summer. !Nosotros Creamos!
- 2013 – The decision to go all-in with a big trade of James Shields looked foolish when the Royals were 45-51 a week before the July trade deadline. But the young core began to gel and the team won nine in a row, part of a hot stretch where they won 17 of 20 and climbed their way back into the Wild Card race, only to fall just short.
- 2016 – The title defense was disappointing through July, with the team six games below .500 at the trade deadline. But the team began to recapture the magic thanks to a praying mantis they found in the dugout. The Royals won nine games in a row, pulling them to within four games of a Wild Card spot, but would end up with a losing record in September.
- 2017 – The Royals of this era were just a streaky bunch. Again, they had a losing record in mid-July, but were only a few games back of first place. They had a walk-off win over the Tigers, kicking off a nine-game winning streak that included two more walk-off wins. By the end of the streak, they were in the second Wild Card spot, and just two games out of first place, but an awful August would doom them.
Ten in a row
- 1977 – The Royals were fresh off their first division title, but started slowly and were under .500 as late as mid-June. A hot July got them to within a few games of first place Chicago by early August. They won two games in Cleveland, then swept the first place Red Sox at home. They followed that up with a walk-off win over the second-place Orioles, and a two-game sweep of Baltimore. They won a 15-inning affair in Milwaukee and eventually got the winning streak to ten games. They took over first place for good, but as hot as they were, they were about to get hotter.
- 1978 – A common theme with Royals winning streaks is they seem to coincide when the weather gets steamy in Kansas City. The 1978 Royals were 44-40 at the All-Star break in mid-July, and dropped their first second-half game. Rookie Rich Gale beat the Brewers for his tenth win, then the team swept the hated Yankees in New York. They had walk-off wins against the Rangers and Red Sox, and eventually extended their winning streak to ten before Ron Guidry shut them out in Kansas City. The streak catapulted the Royals into first place, and they would go on to win their third consecutive division title.
- 2014 – The offense was ice cold to start the year, leading to the reassignment of hitting coach Pedro Grifol in May. The team was 29-32 in early June, leading some to wonder if the Royals would have to end up trading ace James Shields at the deadline. The offense came alive in June with a ten-game winning streak that included a pair of 11-run outbursts against the division-rival Tigers. It vaulted the team into first place, but they immediately slumped again and fell under .500 in July before going on a late run that led to a pennant.
Fourteen in a row
The Royals have won 14 games in a row once in 1994. The franchise had been spinning their wheels for a few years, and a work stoppage loomed over the entire season. The Royals hovered a few games over .500 for most of the year, and by July 22 they were 9.5 games back of the White Sox, and 6.5 games back of the new “Wild Card” spot.
After two wins in Detroit, the Royals came home to face the mighty White Sox, led by “The Big Hurt”, Frank Thomas. Royals ace Kevin Appier coughed up a 3-2 lead in the eighth inning, and the White Sox seemed on their way to victory when they took a lead in the top of the twelfth. But rookie Bob “The Hammer” Hamelin cracked a three-run walk-off homer to win the game. The Royals would win all four games in the series, then sweep the Twins and A’s.
Some ceiling tiles at the Kingdome fell, so a series against the Mariners was moved to Kansas City. The Royals sold all seats at a discount and made the game general admission, and 25,000 raucous fans showed up, including two bikini-clad women that ran onto the field. Tom Gordon shut out the Mariners on August 5 for win #14, pulling the Royals to within one game of first (and the Wild Card – Cleveland had tied Chicago for first place).
“They talk about stadiums and ballparks,” said Royals Manager Hal McRae. “We had a ballpark tonight and they were jammed in and rarin’ to go.”
The streak was finally snapped after 14 games when the Royals lost a nationally-televised game. Six days later, MLB players went on strike. The season would never resume. The season ended with the Royals three games back of a playoff spot.
Sixteen in a row
The longest winning streak in club history is a 16-game stretch by the dominant 1977 club. That’s right, that team had TWO double-digit winning streaks. They were already riding high in late August, when Morganna the Kissing Bandit jumped on the field to give Royals star George Brett a kiss. Perhaps it was good luck, because the Royals won the next night, and wouldn’t lose again for weeks.
Paul Splittorff almost no-hit the Brewers. The Royals slugged five home runs in one game against the Mariners. In the middle of the streak, two games were rained out due to the heavy rains that flooded Brush Creek and cost 25 people their lives. Royals outfielder Amos Otis helped rescue eight children that were caught in the rains.
The rains couldn’t slow the Royals. They had back-to-back walk-off wins over the A’s to run their win streak to 16, the longest winning streak in baseball in 24 years. Their lead in the division had swelled to double digits. After one loss, they went on another eight-game winning streak. This was the peak of the Royals’ first great era, a team built around George Brett, Amos Otis, Hal McRae and a deep pitching staff. Unfortunately, their fate was the same as the 1977 club – an ALCS loss to the Yankees.
Nine straight is already bizarre enough. Can this year’s Royals keep winning and move up this list?
