June 12, 2005: Nationals edge Mariners 3-2 for 10-game winning streak

“What followed that year [2005] – after the new Nats brought baseball back to the District ending a 33-year drought – was an unexpectedly fun joyride, a 100-win pace through half a season that helped Washington re-embrace the sport that abandoned it.” – Barry Svrluga, Washington Post1  

Baseball is a game of numbers, statistics, and records. In his review of Alan Schwarz’s book The Numbers Game, George Will notes that “baseball, unlike games of flow like hockey, soccer and basketball, is a series of episodes … every hitting event is part of a pitcher’s record and every pitching event part of a hitter’s record,”2 the ultimate source of numbers, statistics, and records.

Even the casual fan is likely to recall that Joe DiMaggio hit safely in a record 56 consecutive games in the very same 1941 season in which fellow Hall of Famer Ted Williams hit to a .406 batting average. Records that have subsequently been surpassed, like Babe Ruth’s 60 home runs in 1927 and Henry Aaron’s 755 career homers, remain etched into our baseball minds.

Measures of individual performance are integral to our enjoyment of the game, but is there a greater joy for baseball fans than a winning performance by their favorite team? Yes – another victory in the very next game and a consecutive-game winning streak. Since 1900, the 1916 New York Giants’ 26-game streak is the major-league record, and almost every big-league team has had at least one double-digit win streak.3

A lengthy winning streak is exhilarating for a team and its fans alike, and its impact on the season can be profound. The Cleveland Indians and Minnesota Twins found themselves in a battle for first place in the American League Central Division well into the 2017 season. On August 24 the first-place Indians began what became an American League record consecutive-game winning streak by beating the Boston Red Sox. On September 14 Jay Bruce’s thrilling 10th-inning walk-off double secured the Indians’ 22nd consecutive win and clinched a 2017 playoff spot as well.4

But a lengthy, double-digit winning streak at the beginning of the season may not have a similar impact on the season as a whole. When the Milwaukee Brewers won their first 13 games in 1987, they tied a major-league record held by the Atlanta Braves (1982) and subsequently duplicated by the Tampa Bay Rays (2023).5 One month later, the Brewers endured a 12-game losing streak and finished third in the AL East Division.

What does the Washington Nationals’ 2005 season tell us about lengthy winning streaks? Little was expected from a franchise that was returning baseball to the nation’s capital. After all, the 2004 Montreal Expos finished with the second worst record (67-95) in the National League.  

The Nationals returned home to RFK Stadium on Memorial Day in fourth place in the NL East Division after a nine-game road trip, ready to begin a 13-game homestand. They were playing .500 baseball (25-25) with one five-game winning streak and one five-game losing streak since the season began. That losing streak ended when the Nationals won the last game of the road trip in St. Louis, beating the Cardinals, 3-2. Chad Cordero, affectionately known as The Chief, earned his 11th save of the season with “the flat brim of his cap pulled down low on his forehead, casting his eyes into shadow.”6

The Nationals opened the homestand by winning three of four games from the Braves withordero earning saves in those victories. When they swept three games from the Florida Marlins, not only did the 23-year-old Cordero earn his 15th save, but Washington stood in first place in the NL East Division. Local residents had not seen their team in first place as late as June since the AL’s 1933 Washington Nationals.7 Indeed, baseball was back – a buzz in the air, an excitement at the ballpark, and a five-game winning streak.

After a three-game sweep of the Oakland Athletics, fans flocked in large numbers to an outdated RFK – 114,985 for the three-game series against the Seattle Mariners. Many undoubtedly anticipated Ichiro Suzuki’s first appearance in the nation’s capital after having set the major-league single-season record with 262 hits in 2004.

The first two games against the Mariners yielded two more victories and another save by Cordero. In fact, Cordero barely had time for a good night’s sleep after his 18th save extended the winning streak to nine games before Sunday’s series finale.  Now the Nationals had the opportunity to tie the franchise record 10-game winning streak, achieved three times by the Montreal Expos (1979, 1980, and 1997).

Tony Armas (2-3, 4.91 ERA) took the mound for the Nationals. He would be well served if he could match his previous start, a six-inning, four-hit outing against the Athletics to extend the winning streak to five games. The same held true for Mariners starter Ryan Franklin (2-7, 4.77 ERA). His previous start against the Marlins, 6 1/3 innings of no-decision pitching, helped give the Mariners a 4-3 win.

The Nationals scored first against Franklin in the bottom of the second. Nick Johnson opened with a double down the right-field line. One out later, the batter was Junior Spivey, acquired in a timely trade two days earlier with the Brewers, who received pitcher Tomo Ohka in exchange. General manager Jim Bowden traded for Spivey to replace injured second baseman José Vidro.8 Spivey delivered immediate dividends with a two-run homer into the left-field bullpen, his first hit as a National, and Washington’s lead was 2-0.

The Nationals scored again in the fourth inning. Thirty-seven-year-old Vinny Castilla opened with a single to left and stole second. Two outs later, Jamey Carroll drove Castilla home with their third and final run.

The Mariners were consistently threatening in the five innings that Armas pitched, but never did score. Armas yielded five hits and three walks on 107 pitches. He pitched around doubles by future Hall of Famer Adrian Beltré in both the first and third innings.9 In fact, Mariners hitters faced Armas nine times with at least one runner in scoring position and failed to drive in any runs.10 Armas also had strong defensive support, including shortstop Carroll’s leaping catch of a Raúl Ibañez liner in the fifth inning, an ESPN Web Gems nominee for baseball action that day.11

The Mariners’ offense would have to wait for reliever Gary Majewski. In the sixth inning, Willie Bloomquist greeted Majewski with a single and scored with one out when Greg Dobbs doubled to center for Seattle’s first run. Jeremy Reed opened the seventh with a line-drive single to center and scored two outs later when Ibañez doubled deep down the left-field line. The Nationals’ lead was cut to 3-2.

It was time for manager Frank Robinson to call on Luis Ayala, his primary set-up reliever for much of the 2005 season. Ayala had played that role perfectly the previous night when he set up Cordero’s save. In fact, Ayala made nine appearances during the homestand, adding four holds and four wins to his record in that time. This time he struck out a future Nationals fan favorite, rookie shortstop Michael Morse, to end the seventh.12 Ayala retired the side in the eighth to set up the ninth for Cordero, who had thrown only 11 pitches the night before.

Cordero retired the side in order in the ninth on seven pitches – Jeremy Reed on a first-pitch fly ball to center, Dave Hansen on an infield grounder with Cordero covering first, and Richie Sexson on a first-pitch grounder to short on another highlight-reel defensive play, this one by defensive replacement Cristian Guzmán.13

After his 19th save, Cordero remarked, “That’s the loudest I have ever heard cheering for us.”14 The closer had done his job, eight saves in as many attempts, and Robinson, his manager, was emphatic at the conclusion of the 12-1 homestand: “I wish we could stay (at home) another two weeks.”15

As for Ichiro, the Nationals pitchers held him to 2-for-14 in the series and 0-for-5 in the finale. Ichiro’s batting average (.295) had dropped below .300 for the first time in over a year, and he left Washington stuck on 999 hits for his five-season major-league career.16

Alas, the winning streak ended on the very next night after a transcontinental flight, when the Nationals suffered an 11-1 blowout loss to the Los Angeles Angels. They managed to hold onto first place until late July, relinquishing the spot to the eventual division winners, the Braves. By season’s end the Nationals were again just playing .500 baseball (81-81). As for NL All-Star closer Chad Cordero, he finished the season leading the major leagues in saves (47), pitching to a 1.82 ERA.

Indeed, baseball is a game of numbers, statistics, records … and sometimes a long winning streak just gives you that “unexpectedly fun joyride.”17

Author’s note

In 2005 I could not wait for the return of baseball to RFK. The Nationals’ season began on the road so I accepted a friend’s invitation and took the train to Philadelphia for Opening Day at Citizens Bank Park, an 8-4 loss to the Phillies.18 I missed Opening Day at RFK, one that is well captured by SABR Games Project author Laura Peebles.19

As I did on numerous occasions during the 2005 season, I watched this game from my usual seat at RFK behind home plate – Section 316, Row 7, Seat 6. I also had the good fortune to watch the first game of the three-game sweep of the Marlins from the very same vantage point. That game was the only one during the winning streak to finish in walk-off fashion, a sacrifice fly by Ryan Church in the 11th inning. Imagine what happened in the 10th inning! The Chief retired the side in order – Jeff Conine, Carlos Delgado, Miguel Cabrera, a trio that hit 1,198 home runs in their major-league careers.

Nine seasons later, on August 21, 2014, from my seat in Section 220 at Nationals Park, I watched the Nationals entertain their fans with a repeat performance of the 10-game winning streak with a 1-0 walk-off victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks.20 That streak included five walk-off victories for the Nationals on their way to the best record in the National League, 96-66. Joy prevailed until they lost to the San Francisco Giants in the NLDS.

SABR’s Games Project has also captured other most recent accomplishments of franchise-record consecutive-game winning streaks:

• September 4, 2002: ‘Moneyball’ Oakland A’s win 20th game in a row on Scott Hatteberg’s walk-off homer
• June 23, 2023: Elly De La Cruz hits for the cycle, Reds win 12th in a row

Acknowledgments

This essay was fact-checked by Troy Olszewski and copy-edited by Len Levin. Thank you to John Fredland and his Games Project team for their editorial suggestions.

Sources

The author accessed Baseball-Reference.com for box scores/play-by-play information (baseball-reference.com/boxes/WAS/WAS200506120.shtml) and other data, as well as Retrosheet.org (retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2005/B06120WAS2005.htm). The 2005 Topps baseball card (386) for Chad Cordero is from the author’s collection.

Notes

1 Barry Svrluga, “As 20th Anniversary Season Begins, Nationals Must Feed Their Fans Again,” Washington Post, March 28, 2025: D1.

2 George Will, “Thinking Outside the Box Score,” New York Times, August 15, 2004: Sec 7, 10; Alan Schwarz, A Numbers Game – Baseball’s Lifelong Fascination with Statistics (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2004).

3 “Each MLB franchise’s longest winning streak,” MLB.com, May 5, 2024, mlb.com/news/baseball-s-longest-win-streaks-c268160952. The Giants played a 27th game to a 1-1 tie with the Pittsburgh Pirates during the winning streak (September 7-30, 1916) and all of the games were played at the Polo Grounds. Two of the games were decided in walk-off fashion. The Marlins are the only current franchise to have never enjoyed a win streak of at least 10 games, though they have achieved nine-game winning streaks on five occasions, including twice in the 2006 season. They last accomplished such a streak on September 9-19, 2008.

4 Joseph Wancho, “September 14, 2017: Indians winning streak extends to 22 on Jay Bruce’s walk-off double,” SABR Baseball Games Project.

5 Steven C. Weiner, “April 20, 1987: Brewers beat White Sox to run winning streak to record-tying 13 games,” SABR Baseball Games Project. The 2023 Rays finished second in the AL East Division, two games behind the Baltimore Orioles, while the 1982 Braves edged the San Diego Padres to win the AL West Division by one game.

6 Patrick Reddington, “One-Time Washington Nationals’ Flat-Brimmed Closer Chad Cordero Announces Retirement,” FederalBaseball.com, June 20, 2011, federalbaseball.com/2011/6/20/2234308/washington-nationals-flat-brimmed-closer-chad-cordero-retires.

7 Barry Svrluga, National Pastime – Sports, Politics, and the Return of Baseball to Washington, D.C. (New York: Doubleday, 2006), 161.

8 José Vidro got his first major-league hit on June 8, 1997, as a pinch-hitter for the Montreal Expos, who were in the midst of another 10-game winning streak. Vidro was the lone member of the 2005 Nationals roster who also played for the Expos in 1997.

9 Larry Stone, “Mariners No Match for Nats,” Spokane Spokesman-Review, June 13, 2005: C1. Beltré suffered a left hamstring strain in running out his third-inning double and was replaced in the fourth inning by Dave Hansen. He returned to the Mariners’ lineup one week later.

10 Eli Saslow, “Nationals Win One More for the Road,” WashingtonPost.com, June 13, 2005, washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/12/AR2005061201110_pf.html.

11 “2005 MLB Highlights June 12,” ESPN/YouTube.com, youtube.com/watch?v=lq–8V47-4o.

12 On June 28, 2009, the Mariners traded Morse to the Nationals for outfielder Ryan Langerhans. In four seasons with the Nationals (2009-2012), Morse batted .294 with 67 home runs and 208 runs batted in.

13 2005 MLB Highlights June 12.

14 Mel Antonen, “Nationals Capitalize with 12-1 Homestand,” USA Today, June 13, 2005: 4C.

15 Antonen.

16 Stone. Ichiro recorded his 1,000th career hit in his next plate appearance, when he singled in the first inning against Jon Lieber of the Philadelphia Phillies on June 14.

17 Svrluga, “As 20th Anniversary Season Begins, Nationals Must Feed Their Fans Again.”

18 Steven C. Weiner, “April 4, 2005: Washington Nationals lose debut game to Phillies,” SABR Baseball Games Project. Accessed May 2025.

19 Laura H. Peebles, “April 14, 2005: ‘Baseball is back in Washington, DC!’ as Nationals win home opener,” SABR Baseball Games Project. Accessed May 2025.

20 Steven C. Weiner, “August 21, 2014: Nationals walk off Diamondbacks to extend winning streak to 10 games,” SABR Baseball Games Project.