Last season, Luis Arráez became the first hitter in MLB history to win a batting title in the American League and National League in consecutive years. It was always going to be hard for the majors’ best contemporary contact hitter to deliver a follow-up act, but he found a way to over the last 38 days.
Arráez struck out Monday night for the first time in 141 plate appearances. It was the longest any MLB hitter had gone in 23 seasons between punchouts and the fifth-longest streak in the last 40. While it’s not the longest streak in MLB history—Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn owns the longest streak (170 plate appearances) in the expansion era—it may be the most impressive, considering how common strikeouts are in the modern game due to the increased velocity and spin rates hitters must face.
Arráez fittingly went down in a lengthy at-bat, as it took Astros starter Spencer Arrighetti nine pitches to send the San Diego Padres designated hitter back to the dugout (a 3–2 curveball did the trick.) The 27-year-old’s last strikeout before Monday night came during his second at-bat against Miami Marlins starter Roddery Muñoz on August 10, covering a span of 30 full games and parts of two others. In his time between those strikeouts, Arraez hit .386 with a .434 on-base percentage and slugged .455. He had 51 hits in that time, including 44 singles, six doubles and a home run (off of New York Mets hurler Paul Blackburn).
Amazing strikeout of Luis Arraez by Spencer Arrighetti.He had gone 141 consec plate appearances without striking out.Longest streak in the last 20 years per @RealToddKalas. Arraez has struck out only 16 times this season. There were runners on 1st & 2nd. pic.twitter.com/gZrEBjbrO9
— Mark Berman (@MarkBerman_) September 17, 2024
Arráez now leads the National League in batting average at .323. He's 21 points clear of Atlanta Braves designated hitter Marcell Ozuna (.302) and looks locked in for his third consecutive batting title.
But that's not all that happened in the past month-plus. A lot has changed across baseball and the world. Here's a look at some other things that have happened during Arraez's streak.
On August 10, the Baltimore Orioles were 70–48 and had MLB's best record, leading the New York Yankees in the American League East by one game. They have struggled since, going 14–18 and falling to the seventh-best record in MLB (1). They're now three games behind New York in the AL East.
The Chicago White Sox are having one of the worst seasons in baseball history. During Arraez's streak, they went 8–24 (hilariously, a better win percentage than their season mark) and suffered a 12-game losing streak (2). They were shut out five times and posted a run differential of -56. Oh, and three of those wins occurred since Saturday, giving the White Sox their first three-game win streak since June.
The Seattle Mariners were tied with the Astros for the AL West lead and three games back in the wild-card race. They went on to lose eight of their next 10 games, prompting a manager change from Scott Servais to Dan Wilson (3). They now trail the Astros by four games in the division ... but have slightly improved their wild-card standing, sitting two games out of a playoff spot.
Elly De La Cruz enters Tuesday's games leading MLB in strikeouts with 201. During Arraez's streak without a K, the electric Cincinnati Reds shortstop played in 34 games and made 150 plate appearances. He struck out 46 times (4).
Shohei Ohtani continued his inevitable march toward the National League MVP award and continued his pursuit of becoming the sole member of the 50–50 club. During Arraez's streak, Ohtani hit 12 home runs and stole 16 bases (5). He also struck out 36 times.
Pittsburgh Pirates rookie phenom Paul Skenes took the mound six times in that stretch. He went 4–1 with a 1.59 ERA, a 1.06 WHIP, and racked up 43 strikeouts against 12 walks in 34 innings (6). He surrendered only six earned runs and one home run in that time.
Baseball wasn't the only sport happening during the last month-plus. The closing ceremonies for the 2024 Summer Olympics (7) took place on August 11, the day after Arraez's streak began. Yeah, it was that long ago. Additionally, the entire 2024 Paralympic Games (8) took place. The event began on August 28 in Paris and ended on September 8 after 549 events in 22 sports.
There were four-plus weeks of NFL football between the start of Arraez's streak and the end. The last games from Week 1 of the preseason happened on August 11. Two preseason weeks and two full weeks of regular season football (9) were played between his strikeouts.
Florida State went 0–3 (10), and had its bye week, during the streak.
There have been four full weeks of Premier League action (11), with Manchester City racing to the top of the table. The Citizens are 4-0-0 with an 11–3 goal differential.
San Marino, the last-place team in FIFA's soccer rankings, won its first match in 20 years (12) by beating Liechtenstein.
During Arraez's streak, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2,124.54 points (13) from 39,497.54 to 41,662.08. Is Luis Arraez displaying a keen eye at the plate good for the U.S. economy? It's hard to argue against the evidence.
The Boeing Starliner finally returned to Earth (14) after being stuck in space for three months. It was floating in the stars for 26 days during the streak.
Beetlejuice returned to screens in Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice (15) and racked up more than a quarter billion dollars at the box office.
Shogun won 18 Emmys (16), the most ever for a show in a single year.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as 17 Things That Happened Between Luis Arraez's Last Two Strikeouts.
