Cleveland Guardians Tie Best Start in Franchise History By Beating Boston Red Sox
For the third time in their 124-year history, the Cleveland Guardians have opened the season on a 17-6 hot streak following their latest win over the Red Sox.
The Cleveland Guardians continued their season-opening hot streak on Tuesday, making franchise history in the process.
Cleveland turned on the jets late to beat the Boston Red Sox 4-1, scoring two in the seventh and two in the eighth to emerge victorious. They improved to 17-6 with the win, matching their best start ever through 23 games.
The last time the team posted that record was in 1999, when they were still the Indians. Before that, they had only ever done so in 1966.
Of course, a hot start to a season doesn't always mean that momentum will continue through the rest of the year.
Cleveland.com's Hayden Grove made a note of how the 1966 and 1999 teams finished after starting 17-6, and it was a tale of two seasons. In 1966, the Indians went 64-75 in the remaining 139 games to finish 81-81 and miss the playoffs. In 1999, they went 80-59 the rest of the way, entered the postseason at 97-65 and earned a fifth-consecutive AL Central crown.
Cleveland's most recent World Series championship squad, meanwhile, got off to a 16-7 start in 1948.
There is still roughly 86% of the regular season remaining, so plenty more will shake out over the next few months to determine which end of the spectrum the 2024 Guardians end up on. As it stands, FanGraphs is giving Cleveland a 53.0% chance of making the postseason, projecting them to finish the year at 84-78.
Still, the Guardians are leading the AL Central by 3.5 games, boasting the best record in all of baseball, so rookie manager Stephen Vogt's tenure could hardly be off to a better start.
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