Same-Score Streaks: A Case Study in Probability Modeling

A same-score streak in sports is a sequence of games where the scores are equivalent in all games. The motivating problem arose from college basketball, however due to the difficulty in collecting data, streaks in Major League Baseball (MLB) were studied instead. This paper explores the historic data from regular-season games between 1901 and 2019 to include the likelihood of streaks of length 2, 3 and 4. Then we explore various probability models for the distribution of runs scored during MLB games and seasons and generate simulated statistics for the same length of streaks.