Braves Matt Olson Close to Setting New Club Record
Atlanta first baseman Matt Olson has played 864 straight games, the last 730 of which have come for the Atlanta Braves. The Braves’ record is held by two-time MVP Dale Murphy at 740. So Olson is on track to break the record July 10, on the road against St. Louis.
Olson would tie Murphy’s mark July 9 — exactly 40 years to the day from when Murphy’s streak ended.
Trivia time
Which still-existing franchise has the shortest consecutive games record? Aside from Ripken’s Orioles and Gehrig’s New York Yankees, which has the longest?
Bumbling Blue Jays
For the teams in the American League wild-card race, it’s hard to fall too far off the pace. The Toronto Blue Jays have lost six straight games, and they’re still only 2 1/2 games out of a postseason spot.
That doesn’t make this recent stretch of baseball any more palatable. Texas swept four straight from the defending AL champions, with the Blue Jays dropping the finale Sunday when they let Jarred Kelenic score the winning run all the way from second on a wild pitch in the ninth.
There isn’t much for Toronto to be happy about, especially at the plate. After finishing third in the majors in OPS last year, the Blue Jays are in the bottom 10 this season. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has only four home runs and George Springer is batting .220.
Performance of the week
Junior Caminero hit three home runs and drove in six runs as Tampa Bay routed Kansas City 13-2 on Thursday. The Rays also took a combined no-hitter into the ninth inning of that game before Carter Jansen homered off Craig Kimbrel with one out.
Tampa Bay has hit just 74 home runs this season — only Miami and Boston have fewer — and Caminero has 22 of them.
Comebacks of the week
It’s a three-pack this week, courtesy of the resurgent Phillies and a compliant Washington bullpen.
Tuesday: The Nationals lead 5-0 in the fifth and 8-6 in the ninth before allowing eight runs in the final inning for a 14-9 loss. Those eight runs came after the first two Philadelphia batters of the ninth struck out.
Wednesday: Again down to their last out with nobody on, Philadelphia rallies with Kyle Schwarber’s walk and Derek Hill’s two-run homer. The Phillies win 5-4.
Thursday: Down 5-0, the Phillies score two runs in the sixth, three in the seventh and five in the ninth for a 10-5 victory.
Washington’s peak win probabilities, according to Baseball Savant: 98.8% on Tuesday, 96.3% on Wednesday and 96.5% on Thursday.
The Nationals also blew an eight-run lead at San Francisco earlier this month. They’ve lost four games after leading by at least five — the most such defeats in baseball.
Trivia answer
According to Sportradar, the shortest belongs to Washington. The franchise mark is held by the elder Vladimir Guerrero, who played in 276 straight games when the team was still in Montreal.
Aside from the Orioles and Yankees, the Chicago Cubs have the longest team record for consecutive games: 1,117 by Billy Williams. Not far behind are the Los Angeles Dodgers (1,107 by Steve Garvey) and Cleveland (1,103 by Joe Sewell).
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