Back-to-back streaks

[alydar]

Random trivia, but has anyone seen a citation for the longest back-to-back losing / winning streaks in baseball history? I suppose the proper way to define it would be the smaller of the two (e.g. a team loses 5 in a row then wins 20 in a row, their number would be 5). Put another way, if the Red Sox keep going and win 10 in a row, I'd be surprised if that wasn't a record, 10 straight losses followed by 10 straight wins. I'm not nearly proficient enough at baseball-reference to figure this out on my own...

 

[terrynever]

If memory serves, 1952 Yankees won 18 in a row and then lost 9 in a row.

Edit: memory off a bit. Yanks won 18 straight in 1953, lost a game, won five of six, then lost nine in a row.

 

[Lose Remerswaal]

O's lost 12 in a row and then won 6 in a row a few years back

 

[alydar]

If memory serves, 1952 Yankees won 18 in a row and then lost 9 in a row.

Edit: memory off a bit. Yanks won 18 straight in 1953, lost a game, won five of six, then lost nine in a row.

For something that happened over sixty years ago, I'd say your memory is working pretty damn well!

 

[terrynever]

For something that happened over sixty years ago, I'd say your memory is working pretty damn well!

Read about it in the history books. Never really followed Yanks that season. Too busy with first grade.

 

[Toe Nash]

The record for longest winning streak after a 10+ losing streak could be tied today, according to Bostonball.com:
http://bostonball.com/blog.html
 
Held by the 1942 Pirates and the 1989 Tigers. Neither team finished with over 66 wins, for what that's worth (the Tigers were 59-103).

 

[alydar]

An auspicious record the Sox are about to hold...  thanks Toe!

 

[Soxfan in Fla]

The Rays broadcast said the record for most consecutive wins after double digit losing streak was 7. They tied it today.

 

[staz]

A win Monday in Cleveland, and the '14 Sox will have won 8 straight, an achievement the 2013 World Champion Boston Red Sox cannot claim.

 

[John DiFool]

Didn't a team reel off a long winning streak at the start of the season sometime in the last 20 years, only to then go into a long losing streak?

 

[Eddie Jurak]

Didn't a team reel off a long winning streak at the start of the season sometime in the last 20 years, only to then go into a long losing streak?

 
In 1987, the Brewers started the season 13-0 and then 20-3 in their first 23 games. Then they went 0-12, won a pair, and then dropped another 6 to wind up with a firt quarter record of 22-21.  They finished the season 91-71.

 

[bob burda]

I think the hot/cold thing is as interesting as winning streak/losing streak, and vice versa.
 
If you survived the '77 Red Sox, you know how streaky they were:
 
At one point they they won 16 out of 18, followed that up with a 9 game losing streak, then won 9 out of 11. Later on that year, they had a stretch where they won 18 of 20, including 11 in a row.  They followed that one up with a 7 game losing streak.
 
The 2014 Sox have a long way to go to reach that schizoid level.

 

[alydar]

If memory serves, the '07 Sox were incredibly non-streaky, both for wins and losses. Until, of course, they rattled off 7 straight to win it all.

 

[Monbo Jumbo]

The 1977 Red Sox won 6, then lost one, then won 7, then lost 9.

I was at the first game of that losing streak (toilet), and at the first of this years winning streak.


Edit, see the 77 Sox already referenced above.

 

[glasspusher]

2007 was the first time since pre 1946 that they won the pennant without winning at least 10 in a row. There were years when they won 10 or more in a row (1988, 1948) and didn't win the pennant, though. I have always felt that a strong pitching staff is the only thing that stops long losing streaks. Hitting is too hot/cold.