Will he be able to win the title for three consecutive years, which is a rare case even in Major League Baseball’s history? Luis Arraez (27, San Diego Padres), Kim Ha-sung (29), his teammate, will challenge this record.
Arraez started as the team’s first hitter and first baseman in the 2024 Major League Baseball regular season away game against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati, Ohio, on the 24th (Korea time).
Arraez started producing hits in the first inning. As the first batter in the inning, he targeted Cincinnati starter Frankie Montas’ fastball outside the fifth pitch and hit a hit in front of center field to go to first base. However, he failed to score when the next batter, Fernando Tatis Jr., grounded out to third base, forced out from the second base.
When he had a chance to hit the first and third bases with one out in the top of the second inning, he targeted a fastball near his body and recorded a hit that fell between the center fielder and the right fielder, bringing the third baseman to his home. Due to Arraez’s timely hit, the San Diego Padres managed to run 4 to 1. He didn’t stop there, and quickly created a three-hit game by hitting a double to the right fielder at the top of the fourth inning with two outs.
Arraez, who struck out the rookie in the seventh inning, added a hit at the most critical moment, however. Appearing at the second base with no out and no outs in the extended 10th inning, he made a surprise bunt against Cincinnati’s pitcher Sam Mall. The pitcher rushed to deal with it, but failed to overcome Arraez’s foot, resulting in an infield hit. San Diego Padres, which created the first and third bases, ran to 6-4 with Tatis’ double and Jake Cronenworth’s sacrifice fly, and ended the game intact.
On the day, Arraez made four hits, one RBI and one run from five times at bat, and displayed a strong batting performance. Arraez, who also had four hits from five times at bat in the previous day’s game, saw his batting average for this season rise vertically from 0.318 to 0.341 in just two days. According to the Major League’s official SNS account, Arraez has continued his multi-hit streak for eight consecutive games, and has had as many as 20 hits in 38 at-bats recently.
Considering the start of this season, Arraez’s current pace is astounding. Starting the first three consecutive games with one hit from 14 times at bat (0.071 batting average), Arraez only had a batting average of around .100 through the ninth game. After that, he was traded from Miami to San Diego in early May from a batting average of 0.2999. One Arraez will go to San Diego, and Ko Woo-suk (26) and three promising players will move to Miami.
After sweeping four hits in the first game since his transfer, Arraez displayed batting average of 0.419 (31 hits in 74 times at bat) during 17 games with the San Diego Padres. While he had no hit, he showed steady performance to the extent that he only played two games. It is a bonus that he strengthened the infield by moving back and forth between the first and second basemen. Notably, as Xander Bogaerts, who moved to the second base, recently fractured his shoulder, Arraez’s usage has become all the more important.
Arraez is one of the best teaching batters in the Major League. Since his debut with Minnesota in 2019, he played in 92 games in the first season, ranking sixth in the Rookie of the Year in the American League with a batting average of 0.334. Then in 2022, he became the first hitter in the American League with a batting average of 0.316. After moving to Miami the following year, he challenged for a batting average of .400 at one point to rank No. 1 in the National League with a final score of 0.354. He became the first player in the history to change teams and become the top hitter in the league for two consecutive years.
With the two most powerful hits in the recent two games, Arraez has entered the race to become the first hitter. As of Tuesday, Shohei Ohtani (LA Dodgers, 0.348) is the only player who has a higher batting average than that in the National League. Only eight players have been hitters in the Major League for three consecutive years, from Honors Wagner in 1906-1909 to Miguel Cabrera in 2011-2013.
BY: 토토사이트 모음