Something You Didn’t Know Before Today

Few things are better known among baseball facts than Joe Dimaggio’s 56 game hitting streak. Those who like futility will probably know about Chris Davis’ record of 54 at-bats (and 62 plate appearances) without a hit. But what of the guy with the record for consecutive games without getting a hit — the anti-DiMaggio, as it were. To qualify for this award, we look at your consecutive games with a plate appearance: a game appearances without a plate appearance doesn’t interrupt your streak.

Chris Davis has no chance for this record. His hitless streak covered only 17 games. By contrast, consider John Wyatt, a relief pitcher with the Kansas City A’s and Boston Red Sox. On August 18, 1962, he got a hit, his third hit of the season. He did not get another hit until August 25th, 1967. Yep… that’s five years without a hit with plate appearances in 57 games over that period. I find it interesting that DiMaggio’s record is 56 games, while the anti-DiMaggio record is 57 games. But then again, I find a lot of things interesting that nobody else does.

That’s the record, but I hear some of you snort that pitchers shouldn’t count. I disagree, because 5 years of plate appearances without a hit really deserves some sort of recognition. But for those of you who insist that a pitcher should not have any such recognition, I give you Phil Gagliano. 1974 was Phil’s last MLB year (pictured above). After a couple of pinch hits in April, he proceeded to appear in 38 games as a pinch hitter and did not get another hit in his career, which ended when he pinch hit for Pedro Borbon and grounded out to 3rd against Buzz Capra on October 1, 1974. So a major league record was set that day (extending his record of 37 games in a row) before 4,257 fans. I’d have been there, but that was my first semester at college. They always say that there were 250,000 people who claim to have been in Fulton County Stadium earlier in the year for Mr. Aaron’s 715th, but the people who were there on October 1st are really special as well.

In 1974, the Red were managed by Sparky Andersen. I know y’all are mad at Snitker, but imagine Snitker sending a guy to the plate 38 times to pinch hit without a single hit. I don’t have access to Reds management from that period, but I’m sure Sparky just though that he’s eventually “turn Gags around.” He didn’t. Sparky didn’t even let Gagliano play the field for a few games to give him multiple at-bats against major league pitching. That’s Old School, baby.

The Game

Not much to say, really. Bryce Elder followed the up the game that surprised everyone with a game that surprised almost no one. He is a pitcher who requires exquisite control and deceptiveness to make his frankly substandard tools work in MLB. Tonight, they didn’t work against the only non-MLB team in MLB: the Colorado Rockies. Snit brought out the quick hook, but it was 4-1 going into the 6th when Michael Harris II hit a three run home to… stop me if you’ve heard this one before… turn this into a bullpen game in the last three innings.

This time, Marcel Ozuna hit a three run home the next inning off erstwhile Braves farmhand Victor Vodnik. We turned Vodnik and Tanner Gordon into Pierce Johnson. So far, we have the better of that trade: Vodnik and Gordon have combned for 0.3 WAR, while we’ve squeezed 1.4 WAR out of Johnson.

The Braves added 5 more in the 8th when the Rockies remembered how bad they were, and played like it.

When people say you just have to win series when you’re in a hole, they are correct, but when you play a team this bad, you need to sweep, and that’s an enormous amount of pressure, because it’s really hard to sweep a series even against a bad team. But winning the first one is important. The 0-5 Spencer Strider pitches tomorrow. This is his best chance to start his 2025 season.