What Rays can learn from 13-0 starts by 1982 Braves and 1987 Brewers

TORONTO — Dale Murphy still has plenty of memories from the Braves’ surprising 13-0 run to start the 1982 season.

Of the playoffs-like atmosphere around the team and “incredible buzz” in Atlanta as the streak under first-year manager Joe Torre grew. Of the hundreds of fans gathered at the airport to greet them as they returned from Houston after their 11th win, tying the then-record set by the A’s the year before.

Of those who stormed the field after they scored two runs in the ninth on a Claudell Washington single to walk off the Reds for No. 13. And, more recently, of the folks who approached Murphy last summer when the Braves brought in a bunch of his 1982 teammates for a 40-year anniversary event and continue to this day to share how much the streak meant to them.

“I still have Braves fans say that was the most exciting time, take away the championships and the World Series,” Murphy said Thursday from his Atlanta-area home, “because it was so unexpected.”

Members of the 1987 Brewers, who also won their first 13 games in what wasn’t expected to be a strong season, tell similar stories about how excited they and their fans were.

Especially given the dramatics of how they got there, with a no-hitter by 22-year-old Juan Nieves for win No. 9, then a memorable Easter Sunday comeback from a three-run, ninth-inning deficit with Rob Deer hitting a tying homer and, with two outs, Dale Sveum blasting a two-run walkoff shot for No. 12.

“When Juan Nieves threw that no-hitter in Baltimore, it was like, something’s different here, something’s crazy,” said former Brewers reliever and current MLB Network analyst Dan Plesac. “Then, after Sveum hit that homer, I remember running into the clubhouse and it was like the 12-year-olds at a Little League championship, but with grown men jumping up and down and hugging each other. It was just the craziest, like ‘What the hell are we doing?’ ‘’

Rays’ run less surprising

The Rays’ path to joining them as co-holders of the modern-era major-league record for wins to start a season — their streak ending at 13 with Friday’s 6-3 loss to the Blue Jays — wasn’t quite parallel.

The Rays are on a run of four straight playoff appearances and were expected to contend again this season. So, while they got plenty of media attention for their 13-0 start, there wasn’t as much celebration. But they will enjoy some of the other benefits, especially for some of their younger and less-proven players, and one that can continue to pay residuals.

“It’s pretty magical to go through a stretch like that to kick off the season,” said Hall of Famer Paul Molitor, a member of Milwaukee’s 1987 team. “Everyone kind of has optimism coming out of camp and you’re never sure how it’s going to pan out. And once you start winning games, that confidence level just skyrockets.”

Said Murphy, “It really carried us the whole way. It kind of gave us that sense of confidence, a bunch of young guys that had not really done a lot of winning. It was a real crazy thing.”

Cautionary tales

The Rays also can benefit from seeing how their predecessors’ thrilling rides wound up taking some bad turns.

The Braves used their 13-0 start as a springboard to a 61-37 record and nine-game division lead on July 29, then went into a major skid, losing 19 of 21, including 11 straight. As a result, they had to battle until the final weekend to win the National League West with a 89-73 record before being swept by the Cardinals in the playoffs.

“If it wasn’t for those first 13 ...” Murphy said. “I didn’t even realize it, but the rest of the way we finished three games over .500.”

The Brewers, in the ultimate cautionary tale, finished third and, in the pre-wild-card days, didn’t even make the playoffs.

After their streak ended at 13, they ran their record to 17-1 and 20-3 — and then promptly lost 12 straight and 18 of 20. They limped to the All-Star break at 42-43 and, despite a 20-win September, their 91 wins were only good enough for third place in the American League East.

The pivot from winning streak to losing was “a big blow,” Sveum said.

“When you’re at the top of the world, and in our case it was basically 17 games, you think you’re invincible. … You’re out there doing something like that, and then all of sudden with the next 12 days it’s completely stripped away. You’re like, ‘Holy crap, I’m the worst player in the world, and our team stinks.’ So those things happen. But that’s sports.”

Reap the rewards

The challenge is not letting all the equity from the early wins go to waste.

“We gave a lot of it back fairly quickly, which was disappointing,” Molitor said. “You’ve got to avoid some of the mental games that you play. You start going, ‘Well, if we play .500 ball the rest of the way, we’re going to win 89 games.’ You start to think about a lot of things that go around what a long winning streak does.

“When clubs have them in the middle of the year, they’re just part of a 162-game season. But when they’re out of the gate, it seems to garner a little more attention, a little more focus. But with (manager Kevin) Cash and their front office, I’m sure they’re smart enough to realize that they’re going to enjoy every one of these wins but understanding they’ve still got 140-some games to go.”

Actually, Plesac said, these Rays shouldn’t have much to worry about.

“It was like we just all of a sudden hit a wall,” he said. “We went from, like, the best team at 17-1 to under .500 at the break. But the Rays, they’re not going to run into that, because they just have more of everything that we didn’t have in ‘87. … They’ve got a lot of weapons.

“I hope if Robin Yount and Paul Molitor read this, they’re not going, ‘What are you talking about?’ We had two Hall of Fame players, but we didn’t have 1 through 9 what they have. We just didn’t. The Rays are good. They’re really good. They’re one of the best teams in baseball.”

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