Washington: The Cleveland Indians’ historic winning streak was halted at 22 games on Friday as they fell 4-3 to the Kansas City Royals.
A day after the Indians rallied in the ninth inning en route to a 10th-inning walk-off win over the Royals to keep the streak alive, they were unable to come up with another great escape, and baseball’s longest win streak in more than a century ended.
Before a packed house of appreciative home fans in Cleveland, the Indians lost for the first time since August 23.
Their 22 straight triumphs set an American League record — surpassing the previous AL mark of 20 straight established by the Oakland Athletics in 2002.
Cleveland surpassed the 21-game streak put together by National League’s Chicago Cubs in 1935 — but came up short in pursuit of the Major League record 26-game winning streak of the 1916 New York Giants.
“Common sense says you’re eventually going to lose a game. It was a lot of fun,” Indians manager Terry Francona said.
Lorenzo Cain had three hits and Alicides Escobar and Brandon Moss hit home runs for the Royals off Indians starting pitcher Trevor Bauer.
The Indians’ Francisco Lindor struck out with a runner on first with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to end it — sparking a massive ovation from Cleveland fans in appreciation of the three-week ride.
Indians players and Francona emerged from their dugout and tipped their caps to the crowd.
“They’ve been so supportive,” Francona said of the fans. “The atmosphere here has been incredible. Our players wanted to show their appreciation.”
Mike Minor pitched the ninth inning for Kansas City and earned his first career save. He gave up a single to Yandy Diaz to lead off the inning, then struck out Yan Gomes, Francisco Mejia and Lindor.
Lindor was one of the heroes on Thursday when the Indians trailed by one and were down to their last strike in the when he smacked a run-scoring double to send the game to extra innings.
Cleveland went on to win that one 3-2 when Jay Bruce drove in a run in the 10th.
