In their long history, the Dodgers have had 33 winning streaks of 10 games or more. 22 of those came in Brooklyn. The longest MLB streak ever is 26 games, accomplished by the New York Giants in 1916. It started on September 7th with a 4-1 win over the Brooklyn Robins. It ended on September 30th with an 8-3 loss to the Braves.
The Giants did not win the pennant that year, Brooklyn did. Longest streak in the AL is 22, set in 2017 by the Cleveland Indians. The Indians did not win the pennant either. They lost to the Yankees in the ALDS. They had the most wins in the AL that year with 102.
They had passed the White Sox of 1880 and the Cubs of 1935. The A’s had a 20 game winning streak in 2002. For the Dodgers, their longest streak came in 1924 when the Robins won 15 in a row.
The longest streak by a team named the Dodgers came over two years, 54-55 when they ran off 14 straight wins. 10 of those wins came at the beginning of 1955 when the Dodgers started off 10-0.
The LA Dodgers longest streak came in 1962 and was repeated in 1965. 13 games. In 62, the streak started on May 21 with a 8-1 win over the Giants by Sandy Koufax.
It ended with a 7-0 loss to Dennis Bennett and the Phillies. In ’65 it started on September 16th with a 2-0 win over the Cubs by Claude Osteen. It ended with a 2-0 loss to Denny Lemaster and the Braves.
This streak helped the Dodgers win the 1965 pennant. They were 4.5 games out of first place when it started, and up 2 games when it ended. They won their last two after the loss and won the pennant by two games.
It was probably the most important streak in Dodger history to that time. The game time of their last game that year? 2.01. Not many played that fast anymore.
Brooklyn had two other pennant winning years where they reeled off 13 wins, 47 and 53. They had another 13 straight over 2 seasons, 39-40. 9 of those wins came at the beginning of the 1940 season.
The streak in 47 started on July 21st with a 7-1 win over the Reds by Vic Lombardi. It ended on August 1st with a 10-8 loss to the Cubs. Hugh Casey was the losing pitcher.
53’s streak started on August 7th with a 9-4 Podres win over the Reds, and ended on August 21st with a 7-1 Podres loss to the Pirates. That team also had a 10 game winning streak in May. The 55 team surpassed their 10 game streak to start the season with an 11 game run at the end of April and into May.
Walter Alston’s last Dodger team won 12 in a row in 1976. Dave Roberts’ 2022 team matched that. The LA Dodgers have had four seasons, 93, 06, 17 and 23 where they won 11 in a row.
They have also had four teams win 10 in a row, 80, 03, 13 and 17. The 2017 Dodgers are the only LA team to have two streaks of 10 or more in a single season. Only the 53 and 55 teams have also done that.
Streaks are fun. It is great to see the team go on a run and either open distance between them and the other teams or close the gap. Last season the Dodgers had their best August ever. They went 24-4. The last Dodger team to do that was in Brooklyn in the 50’s. Needless to say, but in August, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman were almost unstoppable.
I hope we see more of the same in 24!
Streaks are fun. What would the film “Moneyball” be without the A’s fantastic streak?
Speaking of streaking, should the Dodgers do more running in ’24? (Apologies for the bad transition.)
Mlb.com has a feature naming 10 players who should run more in ’24. James Outman is on the list. The report:
“The Dodgers’ stolen base leader in 2023 was Freddie Freeman, which is a pretty fun fact, but probably also means some of the younger, faster Dodgers could be running a little more. Outman is a prime candidate. (Mookie Betts seems like he’d be one, too, since he only stole 14 bases last year … But he also seems like he wants to take some of the load off his legs, as evidenced by his move from right field to second base, so we’re not going to demand he return to his 30-steal days.)
Outman, Los Angeles’ 26-year-old center fielder, has very good speed (28.9 ft/sec sprint speed, seven bolts), showed good base-stealing acumen as a rookie (16 steals, only three caught stealings) and is a good enough hitter (112 OPS+) that he should be on base with opportunities to run. Outman’s power-speed combo (23 homers with his 16 steals) pushed him to a third-place Rookie of the Year finish. With a little more running, he’s in the 20-20 club.”
It is a bit strange Freddie led the team in steals. And he probably would have had more if he hadn’t hit 59 doubles.
The ’24 Dodgers have so much power that I don’t think there will be much stealing. But some opportunistic theft would be nice. And it’s not hard to can imagine Margot entering late into a one-run game run for Max.
Something that I think has been overlooked: the ’24 Dodgers are A LOT faster than the ’23 edition.
Ohtani, likely to bat 2nd or 3rd, is one of the fastest players in the game–and JDM has apparently become too slow to play LF.
Both Teoscar and Margot are very fast–and they have basically replaced the aging,not-fast David Peralta.
Even on a repaired knee, young Gavin Lux is presumably faster than Miguel Rojas. (A rebuilt ACL didn’t slow Acuna down.)
These ’24 Dodgers may not need to steal as much simply because they’ll be taking the extra base so often.
Should be fun.
Bear
have you done a Ron Perranoski article or did I miss what you posted on LADT ?
The other day the Braves signed their head of baseball operations, Alex Anthopoulos to a seven-year extension. He is signed through the 2031 season. In his 6 seasons at the helm, the Braves have won 6 division titles. They have won one pennant and one World Series. Pretty good. But they, like the Dodgers, have been knocked out in the first round the last two seasons. Yet it is the Dodgers who are more highly criticized as failures than the Braves. In AF’s tenure, they have won one World Series, lost two others, and won the division every year but one. The Braves had the most wins in the majors last season and lost the NLDS 3-1 to the Phillies. They have lost in the division series four of the six years he has been at the helm. The two times they made it to the NLCS they have played the Dodgers. They lost the first one in 7 and won the second in 6 to a Dodger team that limped into the playoffs that season losing not only Max Muncy, but Scherzer, and Kershaw. So why all the vitriol against the Dodgers? Sorry, it makes no sense to me. Winning every year is impossible. Winning two in a row is almost as hard.
Of all the pitchers the Dodgers have faced over the years, and this includes some Hall of Famers, only one ever beat them five times, all by shutout. He was not a Hall of Famer, nor even that good. His career mark was 35-33 with an ERA of 3.65. The year was 1966. Larry Jaster, a left-handed starting pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, went 5-0 vs LA in 66. He beat Drysdale and Osteen twice each, and Sutton for his fifth win. He was 6-5 vs the rest of the league. His nickname was appropriately, Dodger Killer.
Here is a scouting metric used for Michael Busch, that could be some insight from other clubs as to why Busch may not have been valued as high as some would have hoped. Take it for what it is worth. Could certainly turn it around this year.
Here is a twitter post for the 19 year old LHP the Dodgers got back in the trade, Jackson Ferris. This was his final game for 2023.
Here are two twitter posts for 19 (next week) OF/P Zyhir Hope. One hitting and one pitching. The pitching is from high school.

One goes Hollywood, while the other represents the Dodgers as he drops the puck on Dodger Night with the Kings.


At this point wouldn’t be to surprised ending up with Hader. Having Freddie mookie and Ohtani around would assume make him a better teammate as opposed to toxic padres and sure be a hard team to beat in October if everyone is heathy