No. 194 Five steals, an 18-game record tie, and a 13th-inning walk-off

On September 3, 2000, Kenny Lofton turned one Cleveland Indians game into a three-part oddity. He scored in the first inning to tie an 18-game major-league record, stole five bases to match Cleveland's single-game mark, then hit a walk-off home run in the 13th inning to beat the Baltimore Orioles 12–11. 12

The game supplied almost every way a speed-first player could hijack a box score: run, steal, steal again, and finally a swing that ended a 13-inning argument.

Lofton began the afternoon by scoring in the first inning. That run extended his streak to 18 consecutive games, tying the major-league record set by New York Yankees third baseman Red Rolfe in 1939. 1

The streak was easy to miss inside the larger performance. A run in the first inning looks like a small opening detail. The run also happened to be the eighteenth consecutive one, which put Lofton alongside a mark that had survived since the 1930s. The Society for American Baseball Research records the same September 3 achievement as an American League record tie. 3

Lofton kept running. His five stolen bases tied the Indians' single-game franchise record, previously set by Alex Cole. 1

The five steals gave the game its comic shape. Lofton was chasing a scoring record, tying a team record on the bases, and forcing Baltimore to keep accounting for him every time he reached. The five steals were a Cleveland record tie; the 18-game scoring streak was a major-league record tie. Those two marks belonged to different levels, and Lofton reached both before the game was over.

Cleveland and Baltimore were still tied 11–11 in the bottom of the 13th. Lofton ended the game with a walk-off home run, turning a night of running into a final act of power. 2

Lofton had built his Cleveland reputation on exactly the skill the game kept displaying. After Cleveland acquired him from Houston, Lofton set an American League rookie record with 66 stolen bases in 1992 and led the league in steals for the next four seasons, according to his SABR biography. 3

The 2000 Indians were a good team, although the season did not end with a postseason trip. Cleveland finished 90–72, placed second in the American League Central, and missed the playoffs for the first time since 1993. The September 3 win moved Cleveland to 72–61. 4

That setting makes the game stranger. Lofton was no longer merely adding another routine stolen base to a familiar highlight reel. On one September day, he tied a league record that had stood since 1939, tied a franchise record with five steals, and supplied the winning hit after twelve innings of swings.

A player tied two records with his legs and won the game with his bat. That is the whole September 3 conversation starter.