Blue Jays hope to buck franchise history after win streak ends at 10 games

New York Times

09-07-2025

CHICAGO — For years, the Blue Jays watched other teams rattle off lengthy win streaks. The Tampa Bay Rays started the 2013 season with 13 victories. The Cleveland Guardians won 22 in a row in 2017, a modern MLB record. Earlier this year, the Minnesota Twins dropped a 13-game streak.
The Jays were merely viewers and victims of those American League runs. It 'sucked' watching the Rays rattle off 13 wins to start 2023, manager John Schneider said.
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'There's times when you're like, 'Wow is this team ever going to lose?'' Schneider said.
In 2025, the Jays are the franchise that captured magic and stacked win after win. Toronto became the team it had previously watched from afar — the streaking squad building breathing room. A 2-1 loss to the White Sox on Wednesday ended the Jays' streak one win short of tying a franchise-record 11 consecutive wins. The lossless run vaulted Toronto to the top of the American League East, but as Blue Jays history shows, a streak alone can't build a successful season.
'It's where you want to be,' Schneider said. 'You want people to know that you're playing good baseball, and that you know how to win.'
The last time the Blue Jays sat atop the AL East this late in a season was 2015 — the José Bautista, Josh Donaldson, Edwin Encarnación Jays. That was also the last year they posted a double-digit win streak. The Jays have reached an 11-game win streak five times, but only the two in 2015 turned into October baseball. Prior to this season, the franchise's 10 longest streaks produced just three playoff appearances.
Toronto's current roster is well aware of what a win streak can do when built upon. Eric Lauer, who pitched four innings and allowed two runs in Wednesday's loss, was a member of the Milwaukee Brewers in 2021 when the St. Louis Cardinals won 17 games in a row to vault back into the postseason. A streak like that gets everyone's attention.
Even the pop-ups are fun 😅
Just a team of guys being dudes pic.twitter.com/4w8X75G1nb
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) July 9, 2025
'It definitely made you aware of them,' Lauer said. 'It puts a little bit of a target on their back, and everybody's gonna give that specific team their best effort and their best go. So I think that's kind of where we're at right now.'
José Berríos' Twins were eliminated from division contention three weeks before the 2017 season ended because of the Guardians' 22-win hot streak that year. Berríos remembers that feeling — on the wrong end of another team's greatness — and wants to taste the other side, he said.
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There's a difference between the streak success stories and the teams with a 10-game footnote. Even outside of two streaks, the 2015 Jays still played four games over .500. The 2017 Guardians were 80-60 when you take out the 22-game heater. With added wild-card teams, one strong stretch can put a team in postseason contention. But, still, the rest of the games matter.
That's what gives the 2025 Blue Jays confidence, Max Scherzer said. Toronto's strong play dates back long before the streak. In the month before the 10 straight wins, the Jays posted a 17-10 record. Since May 28, they have a +48 run differential, if you care about that. In the month before the 10-game streak began, Toronto posted the fourth-most runs in baseball.
'This streak didn't happen because all of the sudden we got hot,' Scherzer said. 'We started playing really good baseball a month ago.'
Wednesday's loss ended Toronto's undefeated stretch. Now the Blue Jays will find out if the streak stands alone or, bucking franchise history, becomes the foundation of something bigger.
'Baseball is a lot more fun than when you're on streaks,' Scherzer said. 'I get it. But for me, being part of those streaks and being in the league, it's not as much about the streak. What's impressed me about this team is the team.'
(Photo of Nathan Lukes: Geoff Stellfox / Getty Images)