Robinson Cano went 2-for-4 with two RBIs, including his second home run and a run scored, in the Mariners’ 4-3 loss at Texas Wednesday, extending his streak of consecutive games reaching base to 28. This is the longest streak of Cano’s career, eclipsing a 26-game run he had for the Yankees in 2012, and the longest by a Mariner since Mike Carp’s 30 in 2011.
Impressive as Cano has been for one of the American League’s lamest-hitting clubs (14th in batting, 15th in on-base percentage, 13th in slugging, 10th in RISP), he has a long way to go before he threatens the franchise record, 47 by Alvin Davis from April 11-June 7, 1984.
There have been four of 40 or more games in addition to Davis’s: Two of 43 by Edgar Martinez (2001) and Ichiro (2004), a 42-gamer by Martinez (1996) and a 40-gamer by Ichiro (2004).
Cano hit .369 during his streak (41-for-111), which has him second in the AL batting race with a .326 average, trailing Detroit’s Victor Martinez (.329), and just ahead of Toronto’s Melky Cabrera (.323) and Detroit’s Miguel Cabrera (.321).
In Mariners annals, Ichiro produced the highest batting average by any player during a streak of 25 or more consecutive games reaching base. Ichiro hit .453 (78 for 172) from June 30-Aug. 12, 2004 (38 games) en route to setting the major league single-season record with 262 hits.
These are the top 10 batting averages posted by Mariners who reached base in 25 or more consecutive games:
| Year | Player | Start | Finish | Games | Hits | BA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Ichiro Suzuki | June 30 | Aug. 12 | 38 | 78 | .453 |
| 2000 | Edgar Martinez | April 30 | May 29 | 26 | 45 | .446 |
| 1996 | Alex Rodriguez | July 16 | Aug. 10 | 25 | 44 | .431 |
| 1999 | Edgar Martinez | Aug. 6 | Sept. 9 | 33 | 50 | .431 |
| 2007 | Ichiro Suzuki | June 30 | July 5 | 30 | 52 | .426 |
| 1995 | Edgar Martinez | Aug. 3 | Aug. 31 | 27 | 37 | .416 |
| 2007 | Ichiro Suzuki | May 7 | June 1 | 25 | 46 | .411 |
| 1986 | Phil Bradley | July 10 | Aug. 8 | 25 | 40 | .404 |
| 1997 | Joey Cora | May 2 | June 14 | 36 | 59 | .404 |
| 1979 | Julio Cruz | May 30 | Aug. 25 | 26 | 39 | .402 |
Cano has 18 multi-hit games during his streak, impressively two more than Davis had in 1984. Ichiro’s 38-game streak in 2004 included 31 multi-hit games. That year, he had 80 such contests, tops in the majors.
Cano has a .411 on-base percentage during his streak. During runs of 25 or more games, Martinez owns four of the top five spots: a .584 OBP in 27 games in 1995, .522 in 27 games in 1996, 518 in 37 games in 1995 and .518 in 33 games 1999. Davis had a .519 OPS in 29 games in 1989.
FAST START: James Jones went 1-for-3 with a run scored Wednesday and has recorded at least one hit in each of his first 12 MLB starts. That’s a continuing club record, passing Edgar Martinez, who had hits in his first 10 starts in 1987. Alvin Davis had nine in 1984.
EX-MARINERS: During his most recent stint with the Mariners — 76 games in 2013 — Mike Morse hit .226 with 13 home runs and 27 RBIs. Morse got hurt, got hurt again, and got hurt again. The Mariners finally traded him to Baltimore Aug. 30, 2013 for Xavier Avery, who has yet to play a major league game for Seattle.
Morse spent the balance of 2013 with the Orioles and signed with the San Francisco Giants on a one-year deal worth $6 million. Through the first seven weeks of this season, Morse leads the Giants with 10 homers and 28 RBIs.
3 Comments
Considering he doesn’t nearly the same kind of lineup around him he did as a Yankee Cano’s BA is a pleasant surprise. He hasn’t gone around the clubhouse yelling “Where’s my batting lineup” though that could still happen. Especially if the organization stands pat on player acquisitions the next few years. I don’t want Cano to become the new Ichiro: a great hitter with nothing around him to take advantage of his talent.
Couldn’t agree with you more Jafabian!
Frankly, that Cano has done as well as he has is almost surprising. You know he’s not seeing a lot of good pitches with few runners on base and the kind of batters he’s got coming up behind him, and he’s adapted by making contact with pitches according to where they’re coming in. He’s still getting hits and moving what runners there are along. I think the homers will come but Cano’s ability to make chicken salad out of chicken s–t so far has impressed me.