Quick Update: On the Impact of Having Streaks

For the purpose of this entry I'm going to define streaks as 3 or more wins, or 3 or more losses in a row on a team's schedule. You could argue that streaks should be more than 3 in a row, but I think there's something to that length, as 3 games is usually the length of a series with any given team and there's something to be said for winning all 3 games of a series.

Also, if you are going to define a streak as more than 3 games, the Twins have only had two win streaks, both of them at only 4 games, and that would just sound depressing. In May, the Twins won 4 in a row starting with a win in Chicago over the White Sox, and then followed up by a 3 game sweep of Milwaukee in the Dome.

Their other 4 game win streak was towards the end of July, when they took 1 game in LA followed up by another three game sweep at the Dome, this time of Chicago.

The Twins have only had four winning streaks of 3 games:

-3 game sweep of LA at the Dome in April

-2 against Tampa and 1 against KC at the Dome in April/May

-3 game sweep of Detroit at the Dome in May

-1 against Chicago at he Dome right before the All Star break followed immediately by 2 at Texas right out of the break.

On the other hand, the Twins have had 10 losing streaks this year:

-3 games in April (2 @ CHI, 1 vs TOR)

-3 in May (1 @ DET, 2 @ BAL)

-6 in May (4 @ NY, 2 @ CHI)

-3 at the end of May (1 vs BOS, 2 @ TB)

-3 in June (2 @ SEA, 1 @ OAK)

-3 in July (vs NY, sweep at the Dome)

-4 in July (1 @ OAK, 3 @LA)

-3 spanning July-August (all vs. LA at the Dome)

-3 in August (2 @ CLE, 1 @ DET)

-3 in August (2 vs CLE, 1 @ TEX)

Taking that into perspective, the Twins have had 10 total losing streaks, the longest of which was 6 games. The Twins have only countered with 6 winning streaks, the longest of which was only 4 games. That's not encouraging if this team can't put together momentum.

Last year, which wasn't a great year, but was certainly good from the fact that we were in it until the end, the Twins had 12 winning streaks as opposed to 9 losing streaks. And while the longest losing streak last year was also 6 games, it fed directly into the Twins longest winning streak of 10 whole games!

Simply put, we could use a 10 game winning streak this year, and our inability to put much in the way of a run of winning a large chunk of games in a row certainly accounts for why we can never gain ground in the standings.

That being said: a win this afternoon puts us at another 3 game winning streak ... it would be great if they could keep extending that for awhile?