Indians' incredible run done after 22 victories

CLEVELAND – The Cleveland Indians can return to clinching their division and playoff preparations.

Their historic winning streak is, well, history.

Cleveland had its AL record run stopped at 22 games on Friday night, as the Kansas City Royals won 4-3 to become the first team to conquer the Indians since Aug. 23.

Brandon Moss homered off Trevor Bauer and Lorenzo Cain had three hits, scored the tying run and drove in the go-ahead run as the Royals, beaten five times by Cleveland over the past few weeks, rallied from a 3-1 deficit to end baseball's longest win streak in 101 years.

The Indians set a league mark and came within four of matching the overall record held by the 1916 New York Giants, a 26-game string that included one tie.

Cleveland's magic number for clinching the AL Central still dropped to two with the Twins' loss to Toronto.

Following a walkoff victory Thursday that saw Cleveland score the tying run with two outs and two strikes in the ninth inning, the Indians couldn't muster another late rally against the Royals bullpen.

This was something they will likely never see again in their lifetimes, and both the Indians and their fans wanted to savor every second of an accomplishment while looking ahead to October.

"They've been so supportive," Francona said of the crowd. "The atmosphere around here is incredible and I think our players wanted to show their appreciation. It's by no means the last game of the year or anything like that, it's just been pretty incredible how they've reacted and we just wanted to show our appreciation because we don't take it for granted.

"I don't think anything is over."

The Indians not only broke the previous AL record of 20 held by the 2002 Oakland Athletics, but they served notice that they well could be the team to beat in the postseason.