Only a few hours after publishing our previous columnJust a week ago, José Adolis García from Ciego de Avila went against all logic and gave us a unique game with his bat. The Texas Rangers outfielder destroyed the Oakland pitching with 3 home runs, 2 doubles, 8 RBIs and 5 runs scored, an offensive festival never seen in Major League history.
At this point, some of the marks left by the Cuban still echo:
* First man to hit 3 home runs in the same game at Globe Life Field in Texas, and the man with the most multi-home run games (4) in the Rangers’ fiefdom.
* First American League player to hit 3 homers and 2 doubles in a duel
* First Cuban and third Latino with 5 extra-base hits in a clash
* Fourth player born on the island with 8 RBIs in a game after Yasmani Grandal (2015 and 2021), José Canseco (1994) and Yuli Gurriel (2019)
Three home runs and five extra-base hits: Adolis García’s historic night
Adolis definitely left us with our mouths open, although we shouldn’t be so surprised. Since he played in Cuba, the man from Avila showed that his talent could be felt beyond the borders of the National Series, which was already too small for him. In Japan he couldn’t pick up the pace in a single campaign, but in the United States he made an impact as soon as he arrived.
At various levels of the Minor Leagues, with branches of the Cardinals, Garcia hit, stole bases and began to show his spectacular defensive ability and arm in the outfield. Although it took him almost 4 years to establish himself as an everyday player in MLB, he has not disappointed in his adventure for the best baseball in the world, with 2 consecutive campaigns of 25+ homers and 90+ RBIs, something they had only achieved before 6 Cuban baseball players.
This course, he is leading the way among all major league players in RBIs (29), escorted by another Cuban, the phenomenal Yordan Álvarez. Although there is still a long season to go, it should not come as a surprise that these two remain in the pulse for the leadership of one of the key departments of baseball.
Texas manager Bruce Bochy is one of those who has been able to recognize and appreciate the talent of Adolis Garcia, and such accolades are no small feat when they come from a man who has won 3 World Series as a manager.
“I have been lucky enough to manage great players. I had one who was similar in the way he played, in the joy with which he plays, and that was Pablo Sandoval. They love baseball and they play the way you want them to play. They play with passion. They love being out there and are smiling all the time. That’s Adolis.” said Bochy after the Cuban show a week ago.
Precisely after his stellar night on Saturday, it was not surprising that two days later Adolis was selected as the Player of the Week in the American League. This is the second time in his career that the man from Ciego de Avila has won this distinction, which he achieved in the third week of April 2020. In this way, there are already 12 Cubans who have won said award on more than one occasion .
And since we do not want to leave you with doubts, we present you with the list of all the Antilleans who have been named MLB Player of the Week, an award that began to be awarded between 1973 and 1974:
José Canseco (won 8 times), José Abreu (6), Rafael Palmeiro (5), Kendrys Morales (5), José Fernández (4), Yasiel Puig (3), Tany Pérez (2), Luis Tiant (2), Yordan Álvarez (2), Yoenis Céspedes (2), Yuli Gurriel (2), Adolis García (2), Tony Oliva (1), Mike Cuéllar (1), Bert Campaneris (1), Oscar Zamora (1), Liván Hernández (1), José Ariel Contreras (1), Yunel Escobar (1), Alexei Ramírez (1), Brayan Peña (1), Yonder Alonso (1), Adeiny Hechavarría (1), Jorge Soler (1) and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. . (1).
José Abreu, the streak without home runs and a bit of history
There are already 184 plate appearances and 43 games without connecting a home run by José Abreu, by far the longest streak of his MLB career. As we already advanced last week, this string began in September 2022, when he was still a member of the Chicago White Sox, and has extended throughout the current season, already wearing the flannel of the Houston Astros.
We find this erratic pace of “Pito” striking, who hit at least 20 home runs in 7 of the 8 162-game seasons in which he participated (in 2020 he hit 19 home runs in a 60-game contest) between 2014 and 2021 However, to a greater or lesser extent the large sluggers They also go through these dry spells.
The great Babe Ruth had two streaks of more than 50 games without taking the fences and in one of them he spent 211 trips to the plate without score; Barry Bonds, the man with the most home runs in the Majors, went more than 100 appearances without hitting a home run in 1996 and the same happened to Ken Griffey Jr., Mark McGwire, David “Papi” Ortiz or Albert Pujols, just to name a few. one of the most powerful hitters in history.
If we focus only on Cubans, there are significant streaks of games without homers among the small group that hit more than 200 home runs in MLB. For example, Rafael Palmeiro (569 career home runs) went 300 appearances and 76 games without dribbling the ball in 1988, while Tony Oliva (220) went through a drought of 269 offensive opportunities and 92 crashes in 1975.
To a lesser extent, Tany Pérez (379 home runs) and Kendrys Morales (213) also found themselves involved in losing streaks when it comes to power. The pride of Central Violeta spent 41 games and 167 appearances without a home run in 1977, while “El Sensacional” from Fomento also had 41 games and 171 hit-and-runs during the 2014 season.
The Cuban record for the most consecutive duels without home runs in the Major Leagues is held by José Tartabull, who linked a chain of 386 games between August 3, 1965 and June 14, 1970. However, this is not the worst streak of appearances without homers for a Caribbean baseball player in MLB, since that mark belongs to Gilberto Torres.
He infielder Reglano, in his short career 4 seasons in MLB, never hit a hit beyond limits. In total, there were 1,357 offensive opportunities in a row without a trace of power. The other two Cuban players who surpassed 1,000 consecutive plate appearances without home runs were José Tartabull (1,274) and Marty Martínez (1,029).
By the way, as we have already spoken a couple of times on this subject, we bring you some curiosities related to the four longest streaks of home run games in Major League history. I only warn you that the data is impressive.
* Tommy Thevenow: 963 games and 3,602 consecutive appearances without home runs. When it comes to games, this is the longest streak in history, even if we only take data from the Live Ball Era (starting in 1920) as a reference. Thevenow went 12 years without hitting a home run between September 1926 and October 1938. The streak could have been even longer, but the infielder Indiana born retired. In his career, Thevenow hit only 2 home runs in 1,229 games and 4,485 trips to the plate.
* All Bridwell: 943 games and 3,807 consecutive appearances without home runs. This is the longest streak in history in terms of plate appearances. The fatal string began in April 1905 and lasted until the month of 1913. Bridwell had nearly 5,000 trips to the offensive box in his 11-season MLB career and hit just 2 homers.
* Terry Turner: 878 games and 3,602 consecutive appearances without home runs. Early in his career, Turner never imagined he would go through such a long home run dry spell. In his first 415 duels, although he did not show much power, at least he dispatched 7 balls beyond the limits, but starting in July 1906 he fell into a terrible rut and in 14 seasons (1,317 games and 5,269 appearances) he only hit one home run. further. In all, Turner hit 8 home runs in his 1,659-game career and more than 6,600 offensive opportunities.
* Eddie Foster: 874 games and 3,702 consecutive appearances without home runs. With Foster he closes the short list of players who have added 800 or more consecutive games without home runs in MLB. The third baseman is the fourth with the most duels, but the second with the most appearances without taking the fence (from April 1916 until his retirement in August 1923), only surpassed by Al Bridwell. In his 13-season MLB career, he only hit 6 homers in 1,500 games and 6,336 offensive at-bats.
Quick of the week
* Among the five Cuban pitchers who have worked this season in the Major Leagues, Yennier Cano is the only one who has not allowed a run. The Orioles reliever has 7 starts and 8.2 scoreless innings, with 10 strikeouts on his account. But most impressively, Cano retired the first 24 batters he faced, matching the longest streak in Baltimore franchise history. The man from Ciego de Avila tied the record of Fred Holdsworth, who also took out 24 consecutive men starting the 1976 campaign.
* This week two streaks of the Rays, the team that has put the most energy in the Major League diamonds in 2023, were broken. Tampa left his string of games with at least one home run at 22, an absolute record in Major League history to start a season. In addition, they remained in 14 consecutive wins at home at this start of the course, just one away from equaling the best mark of all time (15), held by the New York Giants since 1907. The Houston Astros, current champions of the Series World Cup, were in charge of breaking the two streaks of the Rays.
* And if we talk about the Rays, we have to talk about Cubans Randy Arozarena and Yandy Díaz. The man from Villa Clara ranks sixth in OPS (.994) among all MLB players, largely because he has shown more power. He slugging de Yandy has risen .161 points (from .423 to .585) compared to 2022, which is why he is among the 15 players who have progressed the most from one year to the next in this section. Arozarena, meanwhile, is in MVP mode. Suffice it to say that he is one of 8 men with an offensive line (average / on-base average /slugging) of .330/.400/.540 so far this season, also shining with his glove and leading the Rays.
* Miguel Vargas hit his first home run of the season this Friday. He infielder The Dodgers hooked a curveball from Chris Stratton (Cardinals) and sent it flying through left field at Chavez Ravine’s Los Angeles fiefdom. This is the second home run in the nascent career of the man from the capital, who little by little is gaining a fixed space in the always demanding Dodgers lineup.
* A lot happens in the Major Leagues, but stellar pitching performances always stand out to me. In the last week, for example, young Spencer Strider (Atlanta Braves) struck out 13 Miami, matching the second best mark of his career. What is striking is that the right-hander has 9 consecutive games with at least 9 batters retired via strikes, only 2 behind the record (11) set by Nolan Ryan in 1977.
