Zach Britton etched himself into American League lore Sunday against the Houston Astros as the Baltimore Orioles closer converted his 55th consecutive save opportunity to set a new AL record.
After being called upon to begin the ninth, Britton sat down Astros first baseman Yuli Gurriel and catcher Evan Gattis on swinging strikes before getting third baseman Marwin Gonzalez to ground into a force out two batters later.
With his latest save, Britton surpassed Tom "Flash" Gordon for the longest stretch without a blown save in the AL, though he'll need another majestic period of consistency to match Eric Gagne's legendary MLB record: The retired Canadian closer converted 84 consecutive save opportunities between 2002-04 as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Britton's streak began on Oct. 1, 2015 when he recorded his 35th save of that campaign against the Toronto Blue Jays, according to Baseball Reference. He would go on to record one more save that season - the following day against the New York Yankees - before embarking on his perfect 2016 season where he converted 47 out of 47 save opportunities and allowed just four earned runs in 67 innings for a sparkling 0.54 ERA.