Last night's loss to Kelvim Escobar was more than a reminder about the pitcher that management let leave Toronto while the team pursued and eventually signed Miguel Batista. Batista signed for $2 million a year less than Escobar; money which, in hindsight at least, would have been far better spent keeping Escobar in Toronto. Last night's loss also saw Escobar and Francisco Rodriguez not allow a double to Blue Jays batters. Toronto had doubled in the team's previous 32 games, which set a new franchise record. Now that it’s over, let’s take a closer look at a streak which provided some excitement and intrigue for Jays fans during the dog days of an August spent on the outskirts of the playoff race.
The streak of 32 games broke the old mark of 31 games, which was set from April 11 to May 14, 2004. The 31 game streak was 2 more than the previous record of 29, which was set twice, once in 1987 (August 14-September 15) and again in 1990 (July 27-August 25). This year's streak of 32 games, which began on July 22 and lasted through August 25, was particularly impressive as the Blue Jays doubled 87 times during the streak, an average of 2.72 times a game. During the streak of 31 games the team doubled only 69 times, for an average of 2.23 times a game. During the 1990 streak the team doubled 1.83 times a game and during the 1987 streak it was 2.03 times a game. Not only did the Jays set a new franchise mark, but they were also doubling with a frequency rarely seen in such streaks.
So, how did Toronto do during the double streak? Did it correspond with team success? It did somewhat, as the Jays went 18-14 during the 32 games, sweeping Minnesota and Texas at home, but being swept by the A's at the Rogers Centre. However, there is not a strong correlation at all. During the streak the team's batting line, over exactly 1,200 plate appearances, was .260/.323/.411 for an OPS of .734. After the July 21 game against Seattle Toronto had a team OPS of .750, with a batting line of .258/.326/.424. By August 25 Toronto's team OPS had dropped to .746, with a batting line of .259/.325/.421. Interesting, the team's OPS actually decreased while the streak was active. Not surprisingly, the culprit was the road trip to Chicago and Tampa Bay; a six game spell that saw the team's OPS drop from .757 to .748. Although it would rise again to .755, it would fall during the home series against Anaheim and Baltimore and has not gone above .750 since.
During the streak the Jays had a memorable game with 9 doubles on August 8th against the New York Yankees and handed Wang the worst start of his career. They also had a game with 7 doubles (August 25), two games with 5 doubles (August 5, August 12), 5 games with 4 doubles (July 24, July 25, August 4, August 13, August 20), 4 games with 3 doubles (July 27, July 30, July 31, August 24), 10 games with 2 doubles (July 29, August 3, August 6, August 10, August 11, August 17, August 18, August 21, August 22, August 23) and 9 games with a single double (July 22, July 23, July 28, August 1, August 7, August 14, August 15, August 16, August 19). In conclusion, in 71.88% of the games during the streak the Jays had more than one double. It wasn’t a cheap streak that continued due to many meaningless doubles against poor pitchers in the eighth inning of games that have been all but decided.
Who was the catalyst of this spell of Toronto two-baggers? Well, four Blue Jays reached double digit doubles during this streak. Take a moment and try to guess who they might be.
The answer: Vernon Wells, Matt Stairs, Lyle Overbay and Frank Thomas.
And who hit the most doubles? Matt Stairs with 12. Wells, Overbay and Thomas each had 11. These four batters combined for 45 of the team's 87 doubles during the streak, which is 51.7%. Others who contributed to the streak were: Aaron Hill (9), Alex Rios (8), Gregg Zaun (8), Reed Johnson (6), John McDonald (5), Troy Glaus (3), Rey Olmedo (2) and Curtis Thigpen (1).
As mentioned above, there were 9 games during which the Jays only hit one double. Which batters hit the timely doubles in those games to continue the streak? Wells, Hill and Stairs each hit a solo double twice and the other 3 timely doubles were hit by Rios, Thomas and Olmedo. Olmedo may have made a small overall contribution to the total, but his double on August 16 in the bottom of the sixth inning was one of the most important of the streak. The last game in which the team hit only one double was on August 19 and in that game V-Dub came through in the clutch with a two-bagger in the fourth.
Actually, there weren't too many games during which the streak was in serious jeopardy. Of the 9 games in which the Jays hit only one double it was only in two games that the double came later than the fifth inning. The other besides Olmedo's aforementioned double was a (then) meaningless double by Frank Thomas on August 7 in the bottom of the 7th in a game the Jays were losing 7-0 to the Yankees. Also, of the 10 games in which the Jays hit 2 doubles, only twice did the first of those two doubles come later than the fifth inning, and in both games (August 10, August 22) it was hit in the sixth. In 5 of the 10 games the first double came in the first or second inning. Of the 13 games in which the team hit more than 2 doubles, in no game did they record their first double later than the fifth inning and in 8 of the 13 it came in the first or the second inning. Therefore, the latest during a game that Toronto hit its first double was the seventh inning on August 7 and only three other times did it come during the sixth inning (August 10, August 16, August 22).
So, how close were the Jays to tying the MLB record? Well, I don't know for sure. But the record from 1960 onwards (and I can't see how this wouldn't be the all-time record) is a ridiculous 75 games. That record was set by the Cleveland Indians from May 30 to August 19, 1996. That broke the previous record of 42 by a whopping 78.57%. The previous record was held by the Cardinals, set from September 23, 1986 to May 13, 1987. Unfortunately, Toronto's streak isn't even the longest set this year, as the Giants have a streak of 38 games that is still active. It began on July 20, two days before Toronto's did.
Here are the five longest streaks of consecutive games with at least 1 double in MLB, from 1960 onwards.
75 - Cleveland Indians - May 30, 1996 to August 19, 1996
51 - Atlanta Braves - July 1, 1999 to August 25, 1999
46 - Tampa Bay Devil Rays - July 12, 2001 to April 2, 2002
43 - Cleveland Indians - September 17, 2005 to May 3, 2006
42 - St. Lous Cardinals - September 23, 1986 to May 13, 1987.
Toronto's 32 gamer is tied for the 28th longest streak in baseball history from 1960 onwards. However, Toronto's rate of 2.72 doubles a game during the streak is the best rate of any of the 50 longest streaks between 1960-2007. It is also the fourth best rate among the longest 100 streaks in that time span, only falling short of the rate set by 3 27-game streaks. Philadelphia's 79 doubles during their 27 game streak from July 1 to August 2, 2007 set the pace with a rate of 2.93 doubles a game. Cleveland amassed 78 doubles from June 10 to July 12, 1994 for a rate of 2.88 doubles a game. Finally, Toronto's 27 game streak from July 16 to August 12, 1995 equaled 2.74 doubles a game.
Although the Jays may not match the Indians in terms of their ability to set doubles streaks, Toronto maximizes the doubles during the streak like few teams can. As this proves, Toronto’s streak may not be the longest in baseball history, or even close to the longest in baseball history, but it a well-deserved accomplishment, both in terms of frequency of doubles during the streak, as well as the timing of the doubles.
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