Obviously, any time you take the field (or court, or rink, etc.) in professional sports, the goal is always to do the best you can to win (well, unless you’re a tanking NBA team…).

There are always factors working against that goal, especially in a sport predicated on randomness like baseball. One pitcher having a great/awful team. An ill-timed weather delay. A long game the night before decimating the bullpen. A long overnight bus ride into town. At the end of it all, the other team is trying to take their best shot at you as well—especially if you’re winning.

With those factors, it’s hard to string together one win after another, but for the last two weeks, that is all the Lake Country DockHounds have done. With a tidy 8-2 win over the Chicago Dogs, the ‘Hounds swept their fourth series in a row, completed their second-straight 6-0 week, and stretched their winning streak to 13 staight games.

Yes, 13 wins in a row. Only two other American Association teams even have 13 wins for the season so far.

How often does this happen?

In the 21st season of American Association play, Lake Country’s current run is the 22nd winning streak in AA history to reach double-digits. Only eight reached 12 games, and this run is the sixth to hit a baker’s dozen.

From 2012-19, the AA featured at least two 60-win teams each season (and the only four 70-win teams in league history), as well as 17 of those 10+ game winning streaks. Since 2022, though, only four teams total have reached 60 wins, including none in 2023, the only season since the AA moved to a 100-game schedule in 2011 without a 60-win squad.

The very long runs have dried up as well, as the AA’s talent pool flattened out after the COVID-19 pandemic and coincidentally, the addition of the DockHounds to the league in 2022, which eliminated a travel team to serve as a punching bag.

In 2019, both the Kansas City T-Bones and Sioux City Explorers ran off 12-game winning streaks, with KC’s run starting just a week after the X’s run came to an end. However, no one has surpassed nine straight wins since—until now.

How have the wins piled up?

Not shockingly, running off long win streaks require a lot of skill, but a little luck, whether it be a fortunate bounce, bad (or scuffling) teams on the schedule, a favorable scenario enabling a late rally, etc. also often help to keep the string of W’s intact.

The DockHounds certainly have seen a little bit of both. Six of their wins were over Fargo-Moorhead and Lincoln, both co-owners of a league-worst 8-14 record. Chicago isn’t much better at 8-13. Three more wins have come at the expense of 10-11 Milwaukee, a series that was played at home. Indeed, only the first win, a road win at Kansas City on May 24, is the only victory over a team currently with a winning record.

Win #3 over Fargo-Moorhead on May 27 required extra innings after coughing up a 3-0 lead. The ninth win, on June 3, saw the ‘Hounds hang on for dear life (and a 10-9 win) after nearly blowing a seven-run lead.

On the other hand, Lake Country has overwhelmingly got the job done. They are outscoring their opponents 123-44, posting a 1.000 OPS as a team, scoring nearly ten runs a game, and notching a sparkling 3.20 ERA as a staff. They’ve won four one-run games, but also bludgeoned teams to the tune of two 20-run performances, plus 14-1 and 12-3 thumpings. They overwhelmed Fargo-Moorhead 39-8. Lincoln (outscored 30-13) and Chicago (pummeled 33-11) didn’t fare much better.

What’s next?

After a well-deserved day off on Monday, the DockHounds will have a short three-game road trip, but it’s a tough one: a Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday engagement with the two-time defending champion Kane County Cougars.

Kane County is coming off a weeklong trip to Texas, where they lost the opener and the finale at Cleburne, but won four straight games in between to move to 14-7, putting them just two games back of Lake Country.

While the DockHounds lead the American Association in most offensive categories, the Cougars pitching staff has been stingy, holding opponents to a 3.59 ERA, second-best in the league. Kane County’s is expected to send ace Konner Ash (2.19 ERA) and red-hot Reese Sharp (0.95) to the mound in the first two games in the series.

As of now, the DockHounds hold the AA’s longest winning streak since Sioux City’s 14-gamer in 2015, a mark they will look to even tomorrow (Tuesday night) against Ash, then try to squeak past Sharp to equal Pensacola’s mark and play for a new league record in the series finale on Thursday.

Can they get it done? We’ll have to wait and see. But we know they’re getting Kane County’s best shot.

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