As you've no doubt heard, the Kansas City Royals have now won 10 straight postseason games: seven this month, plus the last three games of the 1985 World Series. Hey, now those 29 years in the middle seem but a trifle. Anyway, this 10-game winning streak isn't a record. The Yankees won 12 straight in the 1927, '28, and '32 World Series.
Still, 10's pretty good.
The Royals have laid claim to another record. Co-claim, anyway. They're just the third team to open their postseason with seven straight wins. Of course this has been possible only since 1969, when League Championship Series were introduced. Then again, there have been a LOT of posteason teams since 1969 that haven't opened with seven straight wins.
Before the Royals, there were only two. In 1976, without any Division Series and with a best-of-five LCS, the Reds swept the Phillies and Yankees. And in 2007, the Rockies swept the Phillies in the Division Series and then the Diamondbacks.
Like the Royals, the Rockies had finished second in their division. Unlike the Royals, the Rockies actually had to win one-game playoff just to qualify for the postseason. Technically, that playoff wasn't a postseason game. But you might reasonably consider their streak eight games.
Like the Royals, the Rockies had plenty of close calls during their streak. That Wild Card playoff with the Padres was a 9-8 walkoff job. They won their Division Series opener 4-2, and the clincher 2-1. There wasn't much nail-biting in the Championship Series, except for the 11-inning Game 2.
Wednesday, then, the Royals are going for a record that couldn't have been set except for in 1981, and since 1994. If they get it, they'll have plenty of time to prepare to break their own record in the World Series. And they'll try to avoid thinking about what happened to the Rockies after their streak.
