I hope you have a caffeinated beverage…
Well, that only took six games before baseball gave me another reason to hate the frickin’ sport. For the Diamondbacks’ first road series of the season, we get a trilogy of East-coast afternoon games, which means I have to get up early in order to have the previews up before work, at 9 am Arizona time. I am not happy about this. NOT HAPPY AT ALL. And I am going to be even more not happy at all about it, when I have to do the same things again tomorrow and on Sunday. Apologies for any typos. It’s hard to see to type, around the matchsticks which are propping open my eyes.
So, the Diamondbacks sit at 2-4. on pace to win 54 games. Ahead of last year’s pace, woo-hoo! They have also won a one-run game, something which they didn’t do very much last year, and are 1-1 there. In fact, the D-backs have already matched their number of one-run wins through all of April last year. And May. Combined. Yep, in their first 55 games of 2021, Arizona managed just a single one-run victory, when they beat the Reds 5-4 in Cincinnati on April 20th. They were 10-31 overall there. The last team to win fewer one-run games over a full season than that were the 1953 New York Giants, who went 9-24 – and they only played 154 time. So if the D-backs get back to .500 there, that’s potentially ten more wins.
But that isn’t going to happen if they continue to bat a buck forty. I’m sure Carson Kelly will get a hit. Eventually. Though after starting the season 0-for-15, with no walks and six strikeouts, it probably doesn’t feel like it to him. Hey, there’s been worse starts to the season for Arizona, as recently as last year. Domingo Leyba – remember him? No? – played thirteen times for the D-backs without getting a single hit, going 0-for-22. He was then dealt to the Baltimore Orioles, and ended up going 0-for-27 before getting his first hit. The Orioles let him go in August (which tells you something), and he spent some time with the Rangers. He’s currently with the Padres in Triple-A. I’m sure you wanted to know that.
Anyway, Leyba’s 22 AB set a record for most in a season without a hit by a D-back – and that includes pitchers, the worst of whom was Juan Cruz’s 0-for-21 in 2006. Outside of Kelly (…eventually…), the only other batter in the top ten is Kevin Cron’s 0-for-17 in 2020. After a not particularly successful season in Japan, Kevin is now in the Korean League. The all-time worst ohfer the season by a non-pitcher, belongs to Eugenio Velez of the 2006 Dodgers, who went 0-for-37. He also failed to get a hit the last 10 games the previous season as a Giant, meaning he ended his career with an 0-for-46 run, breaking the then record streak for hitless AB. It was previously shared by players including Craig Counsell (and broken since by Chris Davis).
Though if anyone is glad to see the DH, it’s probably Max Scherzer after he was 0-for-59 last season.