CLEVELAND: Richie Palacios #1, Jonathan Aranda #8 and Cole Sulser #71 of the Tampa Bay Rays celebrate the team's 1-0 win over the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field on April 28, 2026 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Nick Cammett/Getty Images)
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It is rather ironic the Tampa Bay Rays began the week with a three-game series in Cleveland. After all, they entered Wednesday’s matinee having won 13 straight against American League foes since losing their first such encounter April 3 at Minnesota. A 1-0 win Tuesday evening bumped the Rays’ mark 13-1 against the AL to join four other teams with the best start against the junior circuit. The first team to get off to such a start was Cleveland in 1966.
Here is a look at how each of the four other teams fared in the seasons they had their hot starts, each predating interleague play. Speaking of which, the Rays are 5-10 against the NL this season, all Central Division teams.
Tom Trebelhorn’s club had the best start of the group in winning 17 of its first 18. At 20-3 and with a five-game lead in the AL East following a 6-4 win at Seattle on May 2, the Brewers were sailing. Alas, that would be their last win for a while. A 12-game losing streak in which they scored two or fewer runs eight times sent the Brewers tumbling into third place.
A couple of wins stopped the bleeding ever so temporarily as Milwaukee lost six straight to stretch its downslide to 18 of 20 and clinging to a winning record (22-21) while having plummeted to fifth place in the seven-team division. The Brew Crew won 30 of their final 45 games to finish 20 games over .500, but had long lost any chance of competing for a division crown, which was won by the Tigers.
Detroit began 16-1, kept winning and stood at 35-5 – 35-5!! – with an 8.5-game lead over Toronto in the AL East as Memorial Day approached. While the Blue Jays would come within 3.5 games in early June after taking two of the first three games in a four-game series at Tiger Stadium, Sparky Anderson’s team was never seriously threatened in running away with the division.
The Tigers swept the Royals in the ALCS – then a best-of-five – before beating the Padres in five games to win the World Series, their most recent crown. Overall, Detroit went 111-59 (.653). Lefty reliever Willie Hernandez was the league MVP and Cy Young winner. Alan Trammel was the World Series MVP.
‘Billy Ball’ was in full swing, though this was a season split in half thanks to labor strife that shut the game down in June. The A’s were 37-23 with a 1.5-game on Texas when the plug was pulled. When play resumed in August, it was determined the first half winner would play the second half winner in each division. The Royals edged Oakland by a game in the back half to set up a best-of-five division series between the teams, which Billy Martin’s club swept. The A’s were then swept by the Yankees in the ALCS.
Oakland had MLB’s best regular season record 64-45 (.617) based on winning percentage. Rickey Henderson finished second in AL MVP voting (by eight points) to Milwaukee’s Rollie Fingers, and Steve McCatty was second in Cy Young voting behind Fingers.
A 14-1 start propelled the Tribe well into June. A 6-3 win over the Washington Senators on June 12 at Cleveland Stadium improved their mark to 34-18 and a first-place tie to with the Baltimore Orioles. Birdie Tebbetts’ team fell out of the top spot after splitting a June 14 double header with the visiting Red Sox. The Indians kept sinking and Tebbetts resigned in August with George Strickland taking over. The worst was yet to come, though, as Cleveland lost 12 of its first 16 games in September to fall four games under .500. The Indians broke even and finished 17 games behind pennant-winning Baltimore.
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