Moises Alou, NYM NL, had a homer in his first AB today, extending his hitting streak to 30 games.  It is the 50th hitting streak of 30+ games in MLB history, including multi-season streaks.

This is the third year in a row with a 30-gamer, matching the longest stretch in history:

Garret Anderson of the Angels as had an RBI in 11 straight games, which is three short of the known AL record, and six short of the MLB record.  Here is the list of guys who've had an RBI in a dozen or more consec. games:

Most Consecutive Games with an RBI
G	BATTER	TEAM	YEAR
17	Ray Grimes	CHI NL	1922
15	Mike Piazza	NY NL	2000
14	George Van Haltren	NY NL	1895
14	Tris Speaker	PHI AL	1928
13	Nap Lajoie	PHI NL	1899
13	Taft Wright	CHI AL	1941
13	Mike Sweeney	KC AL	1999
12	Tip O'Neill	STL AA	1887
12	Tuck Turner	PHI NL	1894
12	Sam Thompson	PHI NL	1895
12	Ed McKean	CLE NL	1896
12	Charlie Hickman	NY NL	1900
12	Paul Waner	PIT NL	1927
12	Mickey Cochrane	DET AL	1934
12	Ripper Collins	STL NL	1935
12	Joe Cronin	BOS AL	1939
12	Rudy York	DET AL	1940
12	Ted Williams	BOS AL	1942

Carl Crawford, TB AL, recently had an extended streak of awesome hitting:

Aug 01: 3-for-4
Aug 03: 1-for-4
Aug 04: 3-for-4
Aug 05: 4-for-5
Aug 06: 2-for-5
Aug 07: 4-for-5
Aug 08: 2-for-4
Aug 09: 3-for-4
Aug 10: 2-for-5
Aug 11: 2-for-4

Compare Crawford to the best streaks in the past 50 seasons:

Over six games, Crawford had 18 hits; here are the:

MOST HITS OVER 6 GAMES, SINCE 1957
20 Kenny Lofton    ATL 4/13-4/19/1997
19 Ivan Rodriguez  TEX 7/29-8/03/1999
19 Johnny Damon    KC  7/16-7/21/2000
19 Marcus Giles    ATL 7/24-7/29/2003
19 Johnny Damon    BOS 7/03-7/09/2004
19 Johnny Damon    BOS 7/04-7/10/2004 
____________________________________________

 ...and Crawford had 19 hits over seven games; he falls just short of the top streaks since 1957:

MOST HITS OVER SEVEN CONSEC. GAMES, SINCE 1957
22 Kenny Lofton    ATL 4/10-4/18/1997
22 Kenny Lofton    ATL 4/12-4/19/1997
22 Johnny Damon    BOS 7/03-7/10/2004
21 Tim Salmon      CAL 5/06-5/13/1994
21 Joe Randa       KC  7/03(1)-7/09/1999
21 Johnny Damon    KC  7/15-7/21/2000
20 MANY 
____________________________________________

Crawford had 22 hits over eight games, again falling just short of matching the top streaks by any player in the past 50 years:

MOST HITS OVER EIGHT CONSEC. GAMES, SINCE 1957
25 Kenny Lofton    ATL 4/10-4/19/1997
23 Ted Sizemore    LA  8/08-8/15/1970(2)
23 Garry Templeton STL 5/30-6/07/1979
23 Rod Carew       CAL 4/24-5/06/1983
23 Hal Morris      KC  4/10-4/17/1998
23 Marcus Giles    ATL 7/22-7/19/2003
23 Johnny Damon    BOS 7/02-7/10/2004
23 Johnny Damon    BOS 7/03-7/11/2004
23 Ichiro Suzuki   SEA 7/26-8/01/2004(1) 
________________________________________

Although those marks for most hits over six, seven, and eight consecutive games since 1957 are pretty amazing, they are nowhere near the all-time records.

ALL-TIME:
Most hits over 6 consec. games
N.L.-24-Cal McVey, CHI, 7/18-7/29/1876
N.L.since1900-23-Jimmy Johnston, BRO, 6/25-6/30/1923(G2)
A.L.-21-Heinie Manush, WAS, 6/13-6/21/1933

Most hits over 7 consec. games
N.L.-26-Cal McVey, CHI, 7/11-7/25/1876, also 7/15-7/29/1876
N.L.since1900-24-Jimmy Johnston, BRO, 6/24-6/30/1923(G2)
A.L.-23-Heinie Manush, WAS, 6/11-6/21/1922

Most hits over 8 consec. games
N.L.-29-Cal McVey, CHI, 7/13-7/29/1876
N.L.since1900-26-Jimmy Johnston, BRO, 6/25-7/4/1923(G1)
A.L.-26-Heinie Manush, WAS, 6/13-6/23/1933

__________________________________________

Crawford also had eight straight multi-hit games.  Only four players have reached double-digit streaks for multi-hit games since 1957:

Most consecutive multi-hit games, since 1957
11-Tony Perez, 1973
10-Rich Dauer, 1978
10-Chuck Knoblauch, 1996
10-Bernie Williams, 2002

But, once again, the old-timers have them beat:
ALL-TIME
Most consec. multi-hit games
13-Rogers Hornsby, 1923
12-Paul Hines, 1879

12-Willie Keeler, 1897

12-Billy Herman, 1935-1936

---Just check out Hornsby's amazing 1923 season, as seen through scans of his official daily sheets:

---Rogers Hornsbys 1923 season game by game

STREAKS TO WATCH
--Longest active hitting streak: 12 games by Florida's Hanley Ramirez.  Brian McCann and Norris Hopper each have 11-gamers going, too.

--Longest active on-base streak: 44 games by Kevin Millar, BAL AL.  It's the third longest by an Oriole in the past 50 years: 49 games (Ken Singleton, 1977) and 46 games (Cal Ripken, 1998).


A CENTURY OF COBB
Ty Cobb's Batting Line from 100 year ago:
August 16, 1907; at home vs. New York: 0-for-5 with a run scored; opposing starter: Hogg.

Cobb's 1907 average thru Aug 16:          .331 (137-for-414)

Cobb's career average thru 8/16/1907:   .310 (286-for-922)

1910NYAL
1910PHIAL
1910STLAL
1910WASAL
1910TEAMSHEETSAL

The other day, fellow SABR member Brian Rash informed me about White Sox Bobby Jenks's amazing pitching streak, which has gone completely under the radar:

On July 17, 2007, Jenks gave up a 2-run homer to Ryan Garko, then retired the next three batters.
Over his next 11 appearances (from July 19 thru Aug 8, last night), Jenks faced 32 batters and has retired every one of them (plus, he got a DP on an inherited runner, making it 33 OUTS in a row over those 11 games).

So, Jenks has now retired 35 straight batters (for 36 outs thanks to that double play) since any batter has reached base in any way, making it equivalent to a 12 inning perfect game!

Only a few pitchers have retired 35 or more batters in a row:

41-Jim Barr, SF NL, 1972
40-Tom Browning, CIN NL, 1988
39-Randy Johnson, ARI NL, 2004
38-Harvey Haddix, PIT NL, 1959
38-David Wells, NYY AL, 1998
35-Bobby Jenks, CHI AL, 2007
(source: Brian Rash)

Jenks has also pitched 11 straight games without allowing a baserunner.  Here are the top marks for consecutive appearances without allowing a baserunner since 1957:

G	PITCHER	TEAM	DATES	IP
13	John Franco	CIN	10/3/1986-5/08/1987	13
11	Pedro Borbon	ATL	5/05/1995-6/10/1995	7.2
11	Bobby Jenks	CHA	7/19/2007-PRESENT	11
10	Paul Assenmacher	NYY	8/04/1993-8/29/1993	7.1
10	Tony Fossas	STL	4/28/1995-5/23/1995	5

But if you impose a minimum of 1 inning pitched per appearance to get rid of the pitchers who just face a hitter or two and then come out, you get:

Most consecutive games without allowing a baserunner, min 1IP per game, since 1957:

G	PITCHER	TEAM	DATES	IP
11	Bobby Jenks	CHA	7/19/2007-present	11
8	John Wetteland	NYY	9/19/1995-4/09/1996	8.1
8	Jeff Montgomery	KC	7/19/1997-8/06/1997	8
8	David Cortes	COL	8/07/2005-8/27/2005	10

So Jenks has no competition when it comes to pitching a perfect inning every time out, as he surpasses the old record by almost 40%, and he's still going!


STREAKS TO WATCH
--Chone Figgins, LAA AL, has gone 105-for-262 (.401) since May 24, which easily makes it the longest stretch of hitting .400 this season.  He can attempt to match Tony Gwynn's since-1980 record of maintaining a .400 average over a 730 at-bat stretch.  Ichiro's best streak was maintaining a .400 average over 535 at-bats.

--The longest active hitting streak is 14 games, by Melky Cabrera, NYY AL.
--The longest active on-base streak is 37 games, by Kevin Millar, BAL AL.

A CENTURY OF COBB
Ty Cobb's Batting Line from 100 years ago:
August 9, 1907: Cobb did not play

The record for consecutive hits is 12 in a row, by Pink Higgins (1938) and Walt Dropo (1952).

Here's a note that I came across that I thought was pretty interesting:

In the last 50 years, what's the closest that someone has come to breaking that record?

I went through the play-by-play files back to 1957, trying to find which players had a hit in 12-out-of-13 at-bats--those guys who would've gotten to 13 hits in a row if not for one unlucky out right smack in the middle of their string of hits.

I only found three players since 1957who came so close to setting a new world's record for consecutive hits, and one of the names on the list represents perhaps the most unlikely batting feat in the last 50 years.

The first name on the list is Rod Carew, MIN AL, who went 12-for-13 from June 1 (2nd at-bat) thru June 5 (3rd at-bat), 1975.  He had nine singles and three homers; the only time he made an out was on a flyball to the center fielder on June 4 in his second at-bat.  And who was the pitcher with the prescription on how to get Carew out?  None other than the Yanks' Doc Medich.

The next name on the list is John Olerud, NY NL.  Like Carew, Olerud is a guy you might expect to find on this kind of list.  Olerud did Carew one better and went 13-for-14 from Sept 15 (second game, 1st at-bat) thru Sept 20 (2nd at-bat), 1998.  He contributed nine singles, a double, and three homers over that stretch.  The lucky pitcher who kept Olerud from setting a new record with 14 straight base hits?  It was Stros' Mike Hampton, who got Olerud to ground out in his 4th at-bat on 9/16.  Olerud did get a consolation prize, though, as he ran off nine straight hits after that ground-out, falling just one hit short of tying the NL record.

And for the surprise name on the list, the guy who came just one hit away from setting a new major league record for consecutive base hits, the guy who makes Ty Cobb look like Tony Womack?  How about Livan Hernandez?  That's right, the same Livan Hernandez who currently pitches for the Arizona Diamondbacks and who's got over 2300 innings pitched in his major league career.  Hernandez's streak began on July 26, 2001, when he was still pitching for the Giants.  He went 3-for-3 that day, 2-for-3 in his next start on July 31, then 3-for-3 on Aug 5, and then 4-for-4 on Aug 11.  And which pitcher kept Hernandez from making a mockery of the record book by keeping a pitcher from setting a hitting record?  How about rookie Dave Williams of the Bucs--whose strikeout of Hernandez must be the most famous of his whopping 245 career strikeouts.

A CENTURY OF COBB
Ty Cobb's Batting Line from 100 years ago:
August 3, 1907: at Washington; 1-for-5 with two runs scored; opposing starter: Gehring


....and a new feature:

STREAKS TO WATCH
--Brian Roberts, BAL AL, has an extra-base in 7 straight games now.  Getting to 10 games in a row would be a pretty rare feat, but it would be an awesome feat for a second baseman.  The only second basemen since 1957 with longer XBH streaks than Robert's 7-gamer?  How about Pete Rose (9 games in 1966) and Bill Mueller (8 games in 2003).

--Jimmy Rollins currently has the longest hitting streak in the majors with 13 games in a row.  Think he can match his 38-gamer from 2005/2006?

So what do Houston Astros pitcher Jason Jennings and 19th century 'switch-pitcher' Tony Mullane have in common?  Both allowed 11 earned runs in the first inning of a game.  Jennings did so on Sunday night against the Padres; Mullane allowed 16 earned runs in the first inning against Boston on June 18, 1894.

So what's the big deal?  As far as my research can show, no other pitcher between Mullane and Jennings allowed as many as 11 earned runs to start a game.  That's over 113 years in between occurrences.  Here's how Mullane's dreadful inning went:

SINGLE, SINGLE, WALK, DOUBLE, SINGLE, SINGLE, HOMER, FLY OUT, HOMER, HIT BY PITCH, SINGLE, HOMER, WALK, STRIKEOUT, WALK, WALK, WALK, SINGLE, SINGLE, WALK, WALK, FLY OUT

I put the outs in bold, since they can be difficult to pick out amongst the hitting mayhem.

That's 11 hits, 7 walks, and 1 hit batter; 22 BOS players came to bat and 19 of them reached base safely.  Amazingly, out of the 16 RBI by Boston hitters, only Duffy had more than three in the inning, thanks to a 3-run homer and a bases-loaded walk.  And yes, those 16 runs allowed are the most ever allowed by any pitcher in any inning in any major league game.

As it turns out, Luke Hudson (KC AL) allowed 11 runs in the first inning of a game last season, but he got lucky and only 10 of those runs were earned.  When he gave up 11 runs in the first inning, he was the first pitcher to do so since Kid Nichols on 9/21/1897.  Hudson's line was:

1/3 IP, 11R, 10ER, 8H, 3BB

Here's another 19th century pitcher who gave one of our modern hurlers a run for his money:  Tom Parrott, CIN NL, had this line on Aug 21, 1894:

1/3 IP, 11R, 10ER, 9H, 1BB

And, with all the talk about Jennings giving up 11 runs in the first inning, we almost missed Jeremy Bonderman allowing 11 runs himself on the same day.

Here are the days since 1957 when two different pitchers allowed 11 runs or more:

4/29/1999: Roy Halladay (TOR, 11 runs) and Mel Rojas (DET, 11 runs)
8/24/2002: Jose Lima (DET, 11 runs) and Jose Cabrera (MIL, 11 runs)
7/29/2007: Jason Jennings (HOU, 11 runs) and Jeremy Bonderman (DET, 11 runs)

Notice a trend there?  A Detroit Tigers pitcher was involved each time.

A Century of Cobb
Ty Cobb's Batting Line from 100 years ago:
July 30, 1907: at New York; 4-for-5 with a double; opposing starter: Hogg

By the way, with Ichiro Suzuki garnering the 1500th hit of his Major League career last night in his 1060th career game, it was stated that he was the third fastest (in terms of games played) to reach that mark, with Ty Cobb being the fourth fastest at 1070 games.  But Cobb actually required 1072 games; the news sources citing the 1070 total are using outdated totals for Cobb's early career.  While Cobb needed 12 more games than Ichiro to get to 1500 career hits, Cobb did it in 434 fewer at-bats.

Dating back to his fourth at-bat on May 23, 2007, Chone Figgins (LAA AL) is hitting exactly .400 (that's 88-for-220).  That seems like a pretty long stretch of hitting .400 (over 2 months); I went back to 1974, to find the longest such streak by any Angel, and it turns out that Figgins's streak of hitting .400 really is pretty long.  It's the 2nd-longest for the franchise in the last 35 years:

LONGEST STRETCH OF HITTING .400 BY AN ANAHEIM/CALIFORNIA/LOS ANGELES ANGEL, since 1974

148-for-370: Rod Carew, 8/13/1982 (3rd AB ) thru 6/7/1983 (2nd AB )
88-for-220: Chone Figgins, 5/23/2007 (4th AB ) thru 7/28/2007 (last AB )
80-for-200: Darin Erstad, 6/3/2000 (3rd AB ) thru 7/25/2000 (4th AB )

But if Chone wants to match the longest stretch of hitting .400, he'll have to keep up that .400 mark from now through May 30, 2013 (almost six more YEARS).  Ty Cobb maintained a .400 average for 2200 days, from 7/27/1909 thru 8/4/1915.

And here are those longest stretches of maintaining a .400 season, in MLB history:

1212-for-3030: Rogers Hornsby, 1920-1926
1202-for-3005: Ty Cobb, 1909-1915
794-for-1985: Jesse Burkett, 1894-1898
778-for-1945: Ed Delahanty, 1894-1897

While Figgins is the hottest hitter in the majors now and has maintained a .400 mark for over 200 at-bats, just imagine a batter who could maintains his .400 average for over THREE THOUSAND at-bats!

A Century of Cobb
Ty Cobb's Batting Line from 100 years ago:
July 29, 1907: Cobb did not play
Lou Gehrig Daily Sheets