innings in Game 7 handing Francona his first World Series loss. On November 15, 2016, Francona was named American League Manager of the Year for the second time in his career. Cleveland turned in another successful season in 2017, with Francona undergoing a cardiac ablation. The highlight of the season was a 22-game win streak that spanned August 24 – September 15. Of historic proportions, the streak placed second longest all-time in major league history to the New York Giants' 26 consecutive (included ties and suspended games) in 1916. It surpassed the 2002 Oakland Athletics' 20 consecutive wins for the American League record. Dominant in all aspects, the Indians trailed at the end of just eight of the 199 innings, and their run-differential of plus-105 (142–37) was higher than all but six teams through that point in the entire 2017 season. The offense produced a .937 OPS, 54 points higher the next best team, the Twins. The Indians' 1.58 ERA scaled 1.15 points lower than the next-best club, the Arizona Diamondbacks. Their Central division lead over the second-place Twins swelled from games to games. In April 2019, the Indians extended Francona's contract for two more years. On July 29, 2021, Francona announced that he would step aside from the team for the rest of the year, citing health issues. He had dealt with a gastrointestinal issue in the 2020 season that led to managing just 14 games (Sandy Alomar Jr. served as acting manager and went 28–18); in February of 2021, he had toe surgery for a staph infection, and a lingering hip problem also bothered him. Bench coach DeMarlo Hale took over as interim manager. Francona entered the 2022 season as the longest-tenured manager in MLB with the same team. Also, since Francona has returned to the team, all the games he missed and that were managed by Hale in 2021 got credited to his record, thereby making him the all-time Indians/Guardians leader in wins by a manager (with 753 coming into 2022). In 2022, Francona led the Guardians to their first playoff appearance since 2020 and first AL Central title since 2018. Francona won the 2022 American League Manager of the Year, beating out Brandon Hyde and Scott Servais. Managerial record Broadcasting Following his departure from the Red Sox in 2011, Francona was employed by the Fox network as a substitute color analyst for the first two games