On August 24, 2017 the Cleveland Indians took the field at home against the Boston Red Sox. They were trying to avoid a sweep, having lost fairly convincingly the prior two nights (6-1 and 9-1).
The 2017 Indians were streaky. To that point in the season they had a nine-game winning streak and two six-game winning streaks. But there was no reason to think they were about to go on a tear like no other in baseball history. In fact there was more of a concern with the Minnesota Twins catching them. On August 24, the Twins were 4.