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How Improbable The Cleveland Indians' Long Winning Streak Really Was

The Cleveland Indian's 2-0 win Tuesday night was their 20th victory in a row.
Posted at 11:52 AM, Sep 13, 2017

With a 2-0 win over the Detroit Tigers Tuesday night, the Cleveland Indians notched their 20th victory in a row.

Without a doubt, baseball fans will understand the significance of the Indians even tying the American League record of 20 consecutive wins.

But if your baseball fandom is a little lower, consider this: The 2002 Oakland Athletics were the last team to do that; there was even a movie made about it.

That's partly because 20 consecutive wins is very difficult.

Statistics site FiveThirtyEight predicts odds before every Major League Baseball game.

And looking back at those estimates for the Indians, they had about a 0.005 percent chance of winning those 20 games in a row.

Yet, despite the 1 in 20,000 odds, you could say the Indians dominated.

In seven of those matchups, the Indians' opponents didn't score a single run.

And out of the 180 innings played during those 20 games, the Indians were behind at the end of only four.