Straight A's

Another day, another come-from-behind (twice) victory for the A's and another walk-off hit for Miguel Tejada. The A's now have to spot the opposition 5 runs and four innings for the game to even hold their interest. They are now one of eight clubs to have ever won 19 games straight and have tied the AL record. Here are the other seven:

Team                      Consec. Ws   W-L    PCT POS GB   Postseason
1916 New York Giants              26* 86-66  .566  4   7 
1880 Chicago White Stockings (NL) 21  67-17  .800  1 +15   No WS
1935 Chicago Cubs                 21 100-54  .649  1  +4   Lost WS
1884 Providence Grays (NL)        20  84-28  .750  1 +10.5 Won Temple Cup (WS)
1884 St. Louis Maroons (UA)       20  94-19  .832  1 +21   None (UA not involved in Temple Cup)
1906 Chicago White Sox            19* 93-58  .616  1 +13   Won WS
1947 Yankees                      19  97-57  .630  1  +12  Won WS
Total                                621-299 .675
* = Plus one tie

A .675 winning percentage translates into a 109-53 record in 162 games. That's not bad considering that the record win total is 116. The A's are now 87-51 (.630 winning percentage) on pace for 102 wins. Even if they win all of their remaining games, they would still be 5 short of the record at 111. If-or should I say when-the A's break the record in eight games, they would be 95-51, .651, which translates into 105-57 over 162 games, not bad.

Think of the poor Angels and Mariners. On Aug. 13, the AL West stood as follows:

W-L   PCT  GB
Seattle  72-46 .610   -
Anaheim  70-48 .593   2
Oakland  68-51 .571   4.5

The Angels were the hot team. They were in the midst of a six-game win streak. Here are the standings now with the teams' records during the streak:

                         Since 8/13
          W- L  PCT  GB     W- L
Oakland  87-51 .630   -    19- 0
Anaheim  82-54 .603   4    12- 6
Seattle  81-57 .587   6     9-11

The Angels have won two-thirds of their games and are currently on another win streak (4 games), but have lost 6.5 games on Oakland. Seattle picked the wrong time to get tepid-they have lost 10.5 games on Oakland in 20 games played. Remember those '64 Phillies?