Randy Arozarena broke all the thermometers in the playoffs of Big leagues of 2020. The Rays player from Pinar del Río set absolute records for a postseason with 29 hits, ten home runs and 14 extra-base hits, tied in this last section with David Freese. Praise rained down on him from all corners and he was baptized by his colleague Francys Romero as the Cuban Mr. October.
Arozarena, who won the Most Valuable Player award in the 2020 NLCS, returned to the postseason the following year and put up a respectable offensive line (On Base Average/Slugging/OPS) of .474/.600/1.074. In total, the West Indian made nine appearances in circulation in 19 appearances at the plate and showed the nerves of steel to shine in the playoffs.
In this 2022, Randy had a lackluster first half of the season (.744 OPS), but after the All-Star break his averages have skyrocketed. In the last 37 games, he is batting .304, his on-base percentage is .389 and his slugging percentage is .515, figures far higher than what he achieved between April and mid-July.
“The season is improving, not as I would like, but it is improving. I have goals to meet and I feel good physically and mentally. I have been able to help the team and I want to stay strong in the remaining month. After the all-star I kept working as usual, I just focused a little more and things have turned out better,” the Tampa outfielder said in a recent interview with Francys Romero.
October approaches and Arozarena smells the blood. This week, for example, he hit three doubles in the same game against Boston, something that no Cuban had achieved this season. In addition, he joined a historic list of 20 other players from the Island who also hit three barrels in a single challenge on at least one occasion.
Of that group, Orestes Miñoso did it three times, while Gil Torres, Zoilo Versalles, José Cardenal, Tany Pérez, José Canseco, Yunel Escobar, Yonder Alonso and more recently Aledmys Díaz did it twice.
With those three doubles at the beginning of the week, Arozarena reached 31 and was only one shy of his personal best, set last season, when he won the Rookie of the Year award. In addition, he became the 10th Rays player to exceed 50 extra-base hits in more than one season and the ninth to do so in consecutive seasons. Before they had only achieved:
*Fred McGriff (1998-1999)
* Aubrey Huff (2003-04-05)
* Carl Crawford (2004-05-06-07/2009-2010)
* Carlos Pena (2007-08-09)
* Evan Longoria (2008-09-10-11/2015-16-17)
* B. J. Upton (2010-11-12)
* Ben Zobrist (2011-12-13/2015-2016)
* Corey Dickerson (2016-17-18)
But Arozarena has gone a little further. In this course, he already has 27 stolen bases (personal mark) and is only the third player in Rays history with more than one season of at least 50 extra-base hits and 20 steals. The only ones who had done it before are Carl Crawford (six times) and BJ Upton (four times).
If we go back in history among Cubans, only nine have hit 50+ extra-base hits and have achieved 20+ steals in a season. The first to achieve it was Orestes Miñoso in 1951, followed by Zoilo Versalles, Bert Campaneris, José Cardenal, José Canseco (three times), Rafael Palmeiro, Alexei Ramírez and Adolis García.
Randy has also set a career high in RBIs (70) and still has a month to go to try to match or beat his record for home runs (20), extra-base hits (55) and hits (145). Until this Saturday, he had 18 homers, 128 hits and 51 extra-base hits, so it is very likely that he will achieve these figures during the month of September, in which the Rays’ classification for the postseason will also be at stake, the promised land. quintessential baseball. And there, if those from Tampa enter, who doubts that he can do his thing again.
