As far as top young players in Major League Baseball go, few are better than Red Sox outfielder Mookie Betts.
Consider the 2016 season, for example. In just his second full year at the Major League level, Betts (7.8) trailed ONLY Mike Trout (9.4) and Kris Bryant (8.4) in wins above replacement (WAR). And by the end of the season, he was an All-Star, a Gold Glover, a Silver Slugger, and finished second in the AL MVP vote (finishing second to Trout is basically finishing first, right?).
But he did another interesting thing last season too. On September 12, 2016 Mookie Betts struck out against an Orioles’ reliever, Oliver Drake, in the sixth inning … and he hasn’t struck out since.
Yep in 122 straight plate appearances dating back to September of 2016 (and including all 45 of his plate appearances here in 2017) Mookie Betts has refused to go out on strikes.
Last night he kept that streak alive, going 2-4 at the plate, with a double.
Betts is now hitting .325/.400/.400 on the season, with a dazzling 0.00% strikeout rate. That streak, as you can imagine, is the longest active streak in the Major Leagues – though I don’t think he’ll quite make it Joe Sewell’s record of 115 … GAMES without a strikeout.
Still, pretty awesome. I wonder how long he’ll make it.