Pete Alonso recently played his 500th consecutive game — though the milestone may not turn many heads in his new home city, given that his Baltimore Orioles are home to the greatest iron man streak in baseball history.
Alonso signed with the Orioles this past offseason, joining an organization whose own franchise record for consecutive games is also the all-time major league mark: 2,632 straight games by Cal Ripken Jr. Before Ripken broke it in 1995, Lou Gehrig held the record at 2,130 games.
After Sunday’s action, Alonso’s streak stands at 501. To put that in perspective, Gehrig’s entire streak of 2,130 games would still fit within the gap between Ripken’s record and where Alonso stands today. Before making the move to Baltimore, Alonso had set the New York Mets’ franchise record with 416 consecutive games played.
The only active player with a longer streak than Alonso is Matt Olson of the Atlanta Braves. Olson has appeared in 864 straight games, with 730 of those coming as a Brave. The Braves’ franchise record of 740 consecutive games belongs to two-time MVP Dale Murphy — meaning Olson is on pace to break that mark on July 10, when Atlanta plays on the road against St. Louis.
Olson would tie Murphy’s record on July 9 — a date that falls exactly 40 years to the day that Murphy’s own streak came to an end.
As for consecutive games records across the league: according to Sportradar, the shortest franchise record belongs to Washington. That mark is held by the elder Vladimir Guerrero, who played in 276 straight games when the franchise was still based in Montreal. On the other end of the spectrum — aside from the Orioles and the New York Yankees — the Chicago Cubs own the longest team record at 1,117 consecutive games by Billy Williams. Close behind are the Los Angeles Dodgers with 1,107 by Steve Garvey and Cleveland with 1,103 by Joe Sewell.
In the American League wild-card race, the Toronto Blue Jays have dropped six games in a row yet remain only 2.5 games out of a postseason berth. That hasn’t made the losing any easier to swallow. Texas swept four straight from the defending AL champions, with Toronto’s latest defeat coming Sunday when Jarred Kelenic scored the winning run all the way from second base on a wild pitch in the ninth inning.
Offensively, the Blue Jays have struggled badly. After ranking third in the majors in OPS last season, Toronto has fallen into the bottom 10 this year. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has managed just four home runs, and George Springer is hitting .220.
Tampa Bay’s Junior Caminero put on a show Thursday, clubbing three home runs and driving in six runs as the Rays crushed Kansas City 13-2. Tampa Bay also carried a combined no-hitter into the ninth inning of that game before Carter Jansen hit a home run off Craig Kimbrel with one out to break it up. Caminero now has 22 of the team’s 74 home runs on the season — a total only Miami and Boston have fewer of league-wide.
The Phillies had a remarkable week against Washington, rallying from the brink of defeat three times in three days. On Tuesday, the Nationals led 5-0 in the fifth inning and 8-6 heading into the ninth before Philadelphia erupted for eight runs — after the first two Phillies batters struck out — to win 14-9. On Wednesday, Philadelphia was down to its last out with nobody on base before Kyle Schwarber drew a walk and Derek Hill followed with a two-run homer to pull out a 5-4 win. Then on Thursday, trailing 5-0, the Phillies scored twice in the sixth, three times in the seventh and five more in the ninth for a 10-5 victory.
Baseball Savant’s win probability figures tell the story of Washington’s collapses: the Nationals had a 98.8% chance of winning Tuesday’s game, 96.3% on Wednesday and 96.5% on Thursday. Washington also blew an eight-run lead at San Francisco earlier this month. The team has now lost four games in which they held a lead of at least five runs — the most such losses in all of baseball.
