6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog

10) 1944 Chicago Cubs, 11-game win streak starting July 25 vs. Brooklyn, last win August 5 vs. Pittsburgh, finished 80-74. A wartime team that sported eight catchers, none of which started even 80 games, the team had eleven players classified 4-F by the draft board. Three managers (Jimmie Wilson, Roy Johnson, and Charlie Grimm) helmed a hapless team that started the season 1-13. Their streak didn't fool anybody, as they were still only 45-46 at the end of it. The 1945 Cubs famously won the National League pennant amid very undistinguished competition, and went down in flames to the Tigers in a goat-cursed collapse.

9) 1941 Cleveland Indians, 11-game win streak starting April 25 vs. Chicago, last win May 5 vs. Washington, finished 75-79. Cleveland finished this streak 16-4, and spent most of the first half (up to June 28) in first place; in the end, they were no match for the 101-53 Yankees, and finished 26 games back.

8) 1914 Brooklyn Robins, 11-game win streak starting Sep. 18 vs. Chicago, last win Sep. 26 vs. St. Louis, finished 75-79. A late-season streak that only served to bring the Robins back to respectability, it was the first year of the Wilbert Robertson Robins; they'd take a National League pennant two years later.

7) 2004 Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 12-game win streak starting June 9 vs. San Francisco Giants, last win June 22 at Toronto, finished 68-93. They only finished this stretch 33-34, in third place in the AL East. The team suffered a 12-game losing streak in August, and managed to lose only one place in the standings, but were 28 games back.

6) 1980 Minnesota Twins, 12-game win streak started Sep. 19 vs. Chicago White Sox, ended Oct. 3 at Kansas City, finished 75-86. A late-season streak against subs and scrubs, played, with the exception of mighty Royals, against mediocre teams. The 1980 Twins were the last hurrah of the Gene Mauch era in Minneapolis, as he resigned 125 games into the season after an August 24 loss to Detroit, citing a lack of "pride, dedication, and responsibility" in the team. It was the fifth year of Mauch's stay with the Twins, three of five of those seasons over .500, albeit just barely, and none of them finishing better than third. That August must have been hard to swallow, as it started with a nine-game losing streak; the team spent all but a handful of days of the season under .500. That team had ex-Angel Ken Landreaux, the trade return for Hall of Famer Rod Carew. Landreaux was about to become a Dodger for in trade for Mickey Hatcher, among others. Also joining the Angels in a 1982 midseason trade: utility man Rob Wilfong. Mauch would also land with the Angels, where he started managing the very next year.

5) 1905 New York Highlanders, 12-game win streak started July 23 at St. Louis Browns, last win Aug. 7 vs. St. Louis Browns, finished 70-79. The 1905 Browns were, to that point, that franchise's nadir, going an abysmal 54-99 to finish last in the American League. That is to say, any team looking to get well had to be salivating while viewing eight games with the Browns (including a doubleheader) in two weeks. The 1905 Cleveland Naps were a little better, but were about the equal of the Highlanders (70-79). The Browns became the Baltimore Orioles in 1954, and the Highlanders went on to become the game's biggest draw, and its chief annoyance — the Yankees.

4) 1999 Baltimore Orioles, 13-game win streak started Sep. 7 at Minnesota Twins, last win Sep. 22 at Texas, finished 74-84. One of three teams on this list with a positive run differential (the others being the 1944 Cubs, and the 1941 Indians): their Pythagorean record was the exact opposite of their finish. Cal Ripken was writing his swan song at third, Albert Belle manned the outfield and sneered at the press, and the ghost of Delino DeShields started at second base in his penultimate good season. Mike Mussina made his next-to-last full season with the O's while garnering a second-place vote in the AL Cy Young award. Meantime, the team steadily drifted into irrelevance despite consecutive postseason appearances in 1996 and 1997. Three of these games were a road sweep of the 70-92 Angels, including an early-career start by Jarrod Washburn. Those Angels actually did very well that September, going 16-12 for the only winning month of their season.

The team has finished no higher than third in the intervening years, and has churned through four managers, as well as a handful of general managers. There are indications the team is starting to right the ship (Baseball America has had better things to say about their farm system in recent years, and the Eric Bedard trade appears to be a fleecing of the M's).

3) 1991 Philadelphia Phillies, 13-game win streak started July 30 vs. San Diego Padres, last win Aug. 12 vs. Montreal, finished 75-87. Nick Leyva's last stand as a major league manager, he was fired 13 games into the season with a 4-9 record; the Phils brought in former Angel Jim Fregosi, who piloted the team to a pennant in 1993, just two years later. As with the 1905 Highlanders (above), the Phillies got well by beating the snot out of a very bad team, the 71-90 Montreal Expos, and a very weak 76-84 Chicago Cubs team. That 1993 pennant was the last they would sniff of the postseason until last year's almost accidental NL East title.

2) 1942 Cleveland Indians, 13-game win streak started April 18 vs. Chicago White Sox, last win May 2 at Washington, finished 75-79. Another wartime team that got accidentally hot early, the Indians played second-division St. Louis five times in this stretch, and swept the godawful Philadelphia A's, who finished 55-99.

1) 1999 San Diego Padres, 14-game win streak started June 18 vs. Pittsburgh Pirates, last win July 2 at Colorado, finished 74-88. The Pads had just the year before been in the World Series, the second in franchise history, so to say their losing April was a disappointment was something of an understatement; they ripped off a string of losses in New York that continued through Chicago for five straight. In fact, this bunch never led the division a single day. The biggest immediately apparent difference was the rotation: Kevin Brown had just signed the richest contract in baseball history to join the Dodgers; Andy Ashby regressed (the Dodgers would make the mistake of long-terming him two years later); Matt Clement was young; and Woody Williams was a mediocrity. The offense was foundering, too, especially at the infield corners, as Wally Joyner aged into irrelevance and Ken Caminiti went back to Houston. Playing a diffident 82-80 Dodgers team (three on the road and three at home), and the reliably bad Rockies and Pirates, the streak only got them to third place; they finished fourth.