How much does homering in consecutive games help with winning?
Gio Urshela of the Yankees celebrates his fifth-inning, two-run home run against the Astros at Yankee Stadium on Saturday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
The Yankees own an eight-game winning streak, which is impressive in its own right and also helps make another Yankees streak look a little more impressive.
They have homered in 25 straight games, tying a franchise record set 78 years ago this month.
But in the 17 games before the winning streak, they were 7-10. So how much does homering in consecutive games help with winning?
The Yankees are two games away from tying the all-time record of 27 consecutive games with a home run set by the 2012 Texas Rangers — a team that went 72-90 despite hitting 230 home runs.
Five other teams had homered in 25 consecutive games, including the 1941 Yankees, who went 101-53 and won the World Series, and the 1998 Atlanta Braves, who went 106-56 but fell short of reaching the Series.
The other teams to homer in 25 straight games (with season record): The 2016 Cardinals (88-74), the 2016 Padres (68-94) and the 1994 Tigers (53-62 in a strike-shortened season).
The 1953 Brooklyn Dodgers homered in 24 straight games. Brooklyn went 105-49 and lost to the Yankees in the World Series.
What makes the current Yankees streak more impressive is that it has been done without even one home run from Aaron Judge or Giancarlo Stanton, both of whom returned from the injured list this past week.
Streak home runs have been hit by Gary Sanchez (eight), Gleyber Torres (six), DJ LeMahieu (five), Gio Urshela, Brett Gardner, Cameron Maybin and Luke Voit (four each), Aaron Hicks (three), Edwin Encarnacion and Clint Frazier (two each) and Didi Gregorius and Austin Romine (one each) for a total of 44.
“Just a lot of capable guys,” manager Aaron Boone said. “You’ve seen our depth. You’ve seen a lot of guys step up, and I think as a group, they do a really good job of making it difficult on a pitcher even when he’s having his way with us a time or two through the order. I think guys have been really disciplined and focused on the approach and the plan as a group and it’s allowed us to consistently score runs — and having guys that are capable also of hitting the ball out of the ballpark.”
The 1941 Yankees had a lot of capable guys, too. They were led by Joe DiMaggio, who hit 10 home runs during the 25-game home run streak, which lasted from June 1-29. That was during DiMaggio’s record 56-game hitting streak, which began on May 15 and ended on July 17.
Tommy Henrich and Charlie Keller each hit nine during the streak. Rookie shortstop Phil Rizzuto hit one, the second of his Hall of Fame career. It came on June 21 at Yankee Stadium against Detroit’s Dizzy Trout.
(Rizzuto’s first career home run was a walk-off — no one used that term in 1941 — two-run shot off Boston’s Charlie Wagner in the 11th inning on April 23. It was the only game-ending home run among the 38 hit by Rizzuto in his career.
The Yankees also have not been shut out in 158 consecutive games, which is tied for the seventh-longest such streak in baseball history. The last time the Yankees were blanked was last June 30, when they lost to the Red Sox, 11-0.
The major-league record will take a while to match. The Yankees went 308 games without being shut out from Aug. 3, 1931 to Aug. 2, 1933.
The 1932 Yankees are one of only two teams in the modern era to not get shut out in an entire season. The other was the 2000 Cincinnati Reds, whose primary third baseman was Boone.
On Aug. 3, 1933, a Yankees lineup that included Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig was shut out on five hits by future Hall of Famer Lefty Grove of the Philadelphia A’s.
The current Yankees streak is the second-longest in club history. Going into Saturday, since the last time the Yankees were shut out, there have been 274 shutouts in the majors, including nine by the Yankees. Each of the other 29 clubs has been shut out at least three times. The Mets have been shut out 14 times in that span.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
