The Royals have done something the American League hasn’t seen in 116 years.
Kansas City’s ninth straight win came Tuesday night against the Blue Jays, and the run began with the Royals sitting at 50-74. That detail matters, because Opta Stats says the Royals are the first AL club since the 1910 White Sox to string together nine wins after entering the streak at least 24 games under .500.
The only other American League team to do it was that 1910 Chicago squad, which turned a miserable season into one of the strangest late surges in league history. The White Sox were 51-80 when they ripped off nine straight, a burst that included seven wins before the A’s even arrived in Chicago, then a doubleheader sweep at White Sox Park. Chicago won those games 8-4 and 3-2 in 11 innings to finish the run.
That team had its own cast of characters, including first baseman Chick Gandil, who would be out of baseball by the end of the decade after his role in the 1919 World Series scandal.
The streak also caught the eye of Ring Lardner, the legendary Chicago Tribune columnist who was on hand for the White Sox’s sweep. Lardner wrote: “To be sure, Connie Mack didn’t use the best pitchers on his staff, but the Sox have no respect for pitchers these days,” Lardner wrote.
“They would be just as careless against (31-game winner Jack) Coombs or (23-game winner Charles) Bender as against the pair Mack sent in yesterday. They are tired of being objects of laughter while others are objects of adulation.
It has ceased to be a picnic to play against them, and they don’t care who knows it. It’s safe to say the American League champs are none too pleased with the prospect of facing us in two more battles this afternoon, but they’ll have to do it or forfeit them.”
There’s one more odd wrinkle in that 1910 run. Before the Athletics came to town, the White Sox took a train to Michigan on an off-day and played an exhibition against Battle Creek’s starting nine, winning 15-1, then returned to Chicago and kept the streak alive.
So yes, the Royals’ stretch has been that wild. They’ve matched a mark that stood alone in the AL for more than a century.
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