Tigers Chasing History With Winning Streak

After an electrifying four-game sweep of the Cleveland Indians, the Tigers now own a twelve-game winning streak, the third longest in franchise history.  Most fans remember their other 12-game winning streak spanning from September 2 to September 14, 2011.  They still need two more wins to match their longest ever.  They won 14 in succession from August 19 to September 2, 1909 and again from July 31 to August 14, 1934.

The Tigers' winning ways go beyond 12 games though.  They are 16-1 since July 21, a record matched only by the 1984 squad.  Sparky Anderson's magic team actually accomplished that feat twice.  Their famous 35-5 run began and ended with 16-1 stretches.

No Detroit team has ever gone 17-1, a record the Tigers can reach if the win tonight versus the Yankees (or tomorrow if tonight's game gets postponed due to rain).  Table 1 below extracted from data on Baseball-Reference's Play Index shows the best Tigers records after X number of games. 

Table 1: Tigers Best Records Ever

Games	Record	Years
14	14-0	1909, 1934
15	14-1	Many times, inc. 2013
16	15-1	1911, 1984, 2006, 2013
17	16-1	1984, 2013
18	16-2	Many times, inc. 2013
19	17-2	1911, 1949,1984, 2006
20	18-2	1911, 1949,1984
25	22-3	1909
30	26-4	1984
35	30-5	1984
40	35-5	1984

Data source: Baseball-Reference.com