Indians prospect extends hitting streak to 50 games after scoring change
The longest hitting streak in modern minor league baseball history ended on Saturday night.
Then, with the swipe of an official scorer’s eraser and the letters D-O-U-B-L-E being written, it picked up right where it left off.
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As you may have heard, Cleveland Indians catching prospect Francisco Mejia entered Saturday’s action with a 49-game hitting streak. The streak dates back to May 27. It covers Mejia’s promotion to the Advanced A Lynchburg Hillcats. It even survived a vetoed trade to the Milwaukee Brewers, which would have seen Mejia swapped with three other prospects for Jonathan Lucroy.
But it couldn’t survive the Winston-Salem Dash on Saturday. Or at least that’s how it appeared.
Mejia finished the game 0 for 4 with a walk and a strikeout as the Hillcats fell 7-5 in 10 innings. One of those four at-bats resulted in an error being charged to Dash third baseman Gerson Montilla. However, with the stands empty and the players ready to head home, the hometown official scorer elected to overturn his original call, instead awarding Mejia a double. Thus, the hitting streak reached 50.
Official scoring change: Francisco Mejia's hitting streak is alive and well at 50 games. E5 changed to double in 3rd inning.
— paul hoynes (@hoynsie) August 14, 2016
First things first, a 50-game hitting streak is elite territory at any level of baseball.
Joe DiMaggio owns the only 50-plus game hitting streak in MLB history at 56. Beyond that, only three players in minor league history own longer hitting streaks. That again includes DiMaggio, who posted a 61-gamer in 1933. The all-time leader is Joe Wilhoit, who hit in 69 straight games in 1919. Then there’s Roman Mejias, who hit in 55 straight in 1954.
Mejia is still in play to equal or top each and every one of those marks, but there will obviously be some question over how legit the hit in question truly was.
Unfortunately, there’s no video available publicly to judge for ourselves. We can only hope a good call was made that wouldn’t harm the integrity of the streak itself, rather than a bailout.
Here’s an official statement from the Hillcats explaining the decision.
Statement by @HillcatBaseball on scoring change that kept alive Francisco Mejia's hitting streak. pic.twitter.com/hw47rsXrED
— MiLB.com (@MiLB) August 14, 2016
It reads:
“After reviewing additional data and watching video of the play, the official scorer decided to rule Mejia’s batted ball in the third inning a double. The video review showed that the ball was struck far enough away from the backhand of third baseman (Montilla) and hit with enough force and topspin to prevent Montilla from making the play with ordinary effort. Based on this, the official scorer changed the error to a hit.”
Obviously, we would have preferred Mejia ending all doubts with a clean hit later in the game. To his credit though, he showed no hesitation drawing a key walk in the ninth inning that helped Lynchburg tie the game.
That Mejia was willing to sacrifice the streak for the good of the team probably speaks volumes higher than the streak itself. He easily could have been selfish, knowing what was on the line and knowing it wouldn’t impact his standing as a top prospect. He wasn’t though, and it nearly got his team a win.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
