Seven-game winning streaks and the Pirates

On Sunday, the Cubs beat the Pirates 4-3. This was their first win over the NL Central’s typical sadsack of the year. Pittsburgh claimed victory in their previous five meetings this year – and also won their last two contests against the Cubs last year for good measure.

OK, so when was the last time Pittsburgh won seven straight games against each of the other NL teams? The chart below shows – it lists the opposing team, and when Pittsburgh won their seventh straight game over them (broken up into groups of five to make it a big easier to read). Please note only the most recent stretch against every individual team will be listed. If a streak lasted more than seven games, I’ll note that in the side:

CHC 5/15/10
FLA 6/1/05
MIL 6/7/02 (lasted nine games)
LAD 6/15/99
SFG 4/1/97

SDP 4/14/93 (lasted ten games)
NYM 8/10/92
STL 8/6/92 (lasted 13 games)
CIN 7/13/91 (lasted nine games)
MON 6/29/91 (lasted eight games)

PHI 5/24/91 (lasted 14 games)
HOU 7/20/79 (lasted nine games)
ATL 9/3/78

Their longest ever winning streak against Arizona is a meager three games. Meanwhile, they’ve had a pair of six-game streaks versus the Rockies.

Since 1978, they’ve never beaten Atlanta six times in a row, let alone seven. The five-game streaks came in 1979 and 1994.

The longest stretch since 1978 was the 14-game winning streak over the Phillies. It lasted one year, one week and one day: beginning August 6, 1990 and having the final win occur on August 14, 1991.

If anyone’s curious, the longest domination the Pirates ever had over another team in their franchise history came in 1937-38, when they bested the Reds 20 consecutive times. In 1937, they were 21-1 against the Reds, which is a mighty nifty achievement.