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<p>CLEVELAND &#8212; The Cleveland Indians hit baseball blackjack &#8212; 21!</p><p>Making history almost every time they take the field, the Indians won their 21st straight game on Wednesday, 5-3 over the Detroit Tigers, to set an American League winning-streak record and join only two other teams in the past 101 years to win that many consecutive games.</p><p>Jay Bruce hit a three-run homer off Buck Farmer (4-3) and Mike Clevinger (10-5) won his fourth straight start as the Indians matched the 1935 Chicago Cubs for the second-longest streak since 1900. The run has put Cleveland within five wins of catching the 1916 New York Giants, who won 26 straight without a loss but whose century-old mark includes a tie.</p><p>The Indians haven&#8217;t lost in 20 days, and they&#8217;ve rarely been challenged during a late-season run in which they&#8217;ve dominated every aspect of the game.</p><p>However, they had to overcome a costly error and rely on their bullpen to hold off the Tigers, who closed within 4-3.</p><p>Roberto Perez added a homer in the seventh and four Cleveland relievers finished, with Cody Allen getting his 27th save.</p><p>With the crowd of 29,346 standing and stomping, Allen retired Ian Kinsler for the final out, giving the Indians the league&#8217;s longest streak since the AL was founded in 1901.</p><p>During their streak, which began with a 13-6 win over Boston ace Chris Sale on Aug. 23, the Indians have rarely been tied, never mind equaled, for nine innings. They have been superior in every way possible.</p><p>Cleveland&#8217;s starters have gone 19-0 with a 1.70 ERA, they&#8217;ve outscored their opponents 139-35 and trailed in only four of 189 innings.</p><p>Incredibly, the Indians have hit more runs (40) than their pitchers have given up in total runs.</p><p>And while they&#8217;ve racked up win after win, the defending AL champs have reduced their magic number for winning their second straight AL Central title to four. They&#8217;ve passed the Houston Astros for the league&#8217;s best record, which will come into play in the postseason because the team with the best record in each postseason series has the home-field advantage.</p><p>On Tuesday, the Indians tied the league mark of 20 straight wins held by the &#8220;Moneyball&#8221; 2002 Oakland Athletics. And now that they&#8217;re alongside the &#8216;35 Cubs, the Indians have a realistic shot of running down the &#8216;16 Giants.</p><p>Cleveland opens four-game series on Thursday against Kansas City, which was outscored 20-0 on its three-day visit last month.</p><p>With a shot at AL history, Clevinger took the mound with Jimi Hendrix&#8217;s &#8220;Purple Haze&#8221; blasting through the ballpark&#8217;s sound system, and Cleveland&#8217;s crowd came to rock &#8212; and witness history &#8212; on a mostly sunny day.</p><p>Some parents kept their kids home from school and brought them to Progressive Field to see a once-in-a-lifetime event Cleveland residents may remember more than any solar eclipse. They cheered every two-strike count like it was October and there was something much bigger on the line. Those days aren&#8217;t far off, and the Indians have viewed the streak as a perfect postseason warm-up as they try to end a Series title drought dating to 1948.</p><p>Clevinger, who didn&#8217;t allow a run in 18 innings over his three previous starts, was down 1-0 in the first after Jeimer Candelario touched him for a two-out RBI double.</p><p>But as they have done for the past three weeks, the Indians responded as Bruce, who arrived in a trade from the Mets last month, connected for a three-run shot into the left-field bleachers.</p><p>The Indians made it 4-1 in the third on Edwin Encarnacion&#8217;s flare RBI single.</p><p>Cleveland&#8217;s lead shrunk to 4-3 in the sixth, when third baseman Yandy Diaz&#8217;s throwing error helped the Tigers score a pair of unearned runs. However, while costly, it didn&#8217;t derail the Indians.</p><p>After Corey Kluber pitched a five-hit shutout on Tuesday, the Indians didn&#8217;t have much time to rest before they were back at the ballpark to finish their series against the Tigers, who have dropped 11 of 12 to Cleveland.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Cleveland Indians' Jay Bruce celebrates with Jose Ramirez (11) after hitting a three-run home run off Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Buck Farmer during the first inning in a baseball game, Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2017, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Ron Schwane)</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/web1_118470161-776b5e6e0ac04992bfa67ed2806842c2.jpg</photo0><caption0>Cleveland Indians' Jay Bruce celebrates with Jose Ramirez (11) after hitting a three-run home run off Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Buck Farmer during the first inning in a baseball game, Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2017, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Ron Schwane)</caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Tom Withers</p><p>AP Sports Writer</p></bylineMeta></div>

Cleveland Indians set American League record with 21st straight win