There's not enough time left in the 2013 season for a historic hit streak to happen, but that didn't stop Denard Span from, at the least, posting the lengthiest such streak of the year. The Nationals center fielder singled to left field in the second game of Wednesday's doubleheader to extend his streak to 28 games, passing Michael Cuddyer's 27-game stretch that ended back in late-June.
Denard Span’s 28-game hit streak is longest in 2013
He’s got a long way to go before history happens, but the Nationals’ record is not far off.
Patrick Smith
Span has been hitting a lot of singles during his streak, but he hasn’t been entirely bereft of pop. His slash line is .378/.414/.504 over the 28 games, with nine extra-base hits and just 12 strikeouts, so it’s been more about putting the ball in play than anything. The streak has helped erase his early season issues and brought his line much closer to that of the player the Nationals thought they were getting when they traded for him this past off-season, and it’s also assisted the Nats as they attempt to make up for their own early season problems in their hunt for an NL wild card spot.
The streak is the third-longest in Nationals/Expos history according to Baseball-Reference, with teammate Ryan Zimmerman’s 30-game streak from 2009 and Vladimir Guerrero’s 31-game binge from 1999 still ahead of Span. There is time left for Span to pass both, and then some, as Washington still has 11 games left on the schedule. If he manages to surpass Vlad and Zimmerman, and keeps it up through season’s end, we’re going to have ourselves a fascinating discussion over the validity of hit-streak records for the start of the 2014 season. That’s quite a ways off, though, as he’s at the exact halfway point for that: let’s focus on getting to 31 for now.
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