Yankees edge A’s for longest win streak in 60 years

The New York Yankees on Thursday night in Oakland edged the A’s by a score of 7-6 (box score) and in doing so won their 12th straight game. That’s the Yankees’ longest win streak since 1961, when they won 13 in a row en route to winning the World Series. 

The Yankees, who haven’t lost since falling to the White Sox in the Field of Dreams game, now lead the race for the top AL wild card spot by three games over the Red Sox, and they trail the Rays by four games for first place in the AL East. At 75-52, the Yankees have the AL’s second-best record (tied with the Astros) and are on pace for 96 wins, which is a feat for a club that was .500 as recently as July 4. In related matters, the Yankees are now 20-4 in August and 29-9 in the second half, and they’ve won nine straight series. Coming into Thursday’s slate, the SportsLine Projection System gave the Yankees a robust 94.4 percent chance of making the postseason, and that’s mostly a consequence of their post-break surge. 

In this one, New York barged to an early 6-0 lead thanks largely to home runs from Giancarlo Stanton (he’s now homered in three straight games), Brett Gardner and Joey Gallo. The A’s, however, chipped away and in the fifth tied the score at 6-6 on a Josh Harrison solo home run. That score held until the top of the ninth, when Aaron Judge singled home pinch-runner Tyler Wade to give the Yankees a 7-6 advantage. Closer Aroldis Chapman, plagued by inconsistency since June, pitched a clean ninth for the 300th save of his career. He’s the 31st player in MLB to reach that mark. This was the Yankees’ 22nd one-run win of the season.

Now here’s an updated look at the longest win streaks in Yankees franchise history:

• 19 games, June-July 1947 
• 18 games, May-June 1953 
• 15 games, Sept-Oct 1960
• 13 games, July 1954 
• 13 games, Sept 1961 
• 12 games, Aug 2021

The Yankees will attempt to tie their fourth-longest win streak ever on Friday in the second game of their four-game set with the A’s. Ace Gerrit Cole will be on the mound for New York with an extra day of rest opposite A’s lefty Sean Manaea. The Yankees have now won three of four head-to-head games against Oakland this season. 

The A’s, meantime, have now lost five games in a row and nine of their last 11. Along the way, they’ve slipped to 2 1/2 games behind Boston for the second and final AL wild card spot.