Powerhouse Athletes Post PGBL-Best Win Streak

The defending champion Oakland Athletes highlighted a dominant start to the season with a PGBL record 21-game winning streak.
The record setting win game in a 3-1 home win over Chicago as Sonny Gray outdueled Cardinals ace Justin Verlander. The Athletes then took two from Cleveland by scores of 11-1 and 2-0 with Jorge Soler going 5-for-7 with four RBIs in the series with a homer in each game.
Win No. 21 saw Mike Clevinger improve to 12-0 as he struck out 12 batters over seven innings in combining with Will Harris and Kirby Yates on a one-hitter.
The streak ended with a 3-2 loss at Brooklyn when Miguel Sano hit a tie-breaking walkoff solo homer off Felipe Vazquez. But Oakland bounced right back with a 10-0 win as Stephen Strasburg twirled a two-hit shutout with 12 strikeouts and Brett Gardner smacked a pair of homers.
Ottawa set the PGBL record for consecutive victories at 18 in 2004, with Compton tying the mark 10 years later. The ’04 Senators also had a 17-game win streak which was matched by Memphis in 2011 and Oakland in ’15.
The Athletes are now 51-12 and lead the Cactus Division by 22 1/2 games. They average 6.4 runs per game while giving up just 3.0. Soler leads the South League with 23 homers and ranks third with a 1.037 OPS. Clevinger sports a league-best 1.80 ERA with Gray second in the SL at 2.34.