Luis Arraez simply refused to strike out.
The prolific Padre went from Aug. 11 to Sept. 15 without ending up on the wrong side of a third strike.
Once September rolled around, people began to take notice of the run Arraez was on. Sadly it ended in Monday's series opener against the Astros. In the second inning, Houston starter Spencer Arrighetti got Arraez to miss on a curveball low and in. It only took one night for Arraez to fall victim to another strikeout. Hunter Brown set Arraez aside on three pitches.
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Arraez's reluctance to strike out extends well beyond his near-historic run. In the 49 second-half games of the season leading up to Wednesday's finale against Houston Arraez got fanned just four times in 225 plate appearances.
With Arraez's streak now over, here are three things to know about it:
1) The streak was the longest in two decades.
Arraez went 141 plate appearances without striking out, the longest run since Juan Pierre made it 147 plate appearances for the Marlins in 2004. According to MLB.com, the longest streak in baseball's Expansion Era came in 1976, when Dave Cash made it an astounding 223 at-bats. As for the lengthiest run in Padres history — if you don't already know who it belongs to, you could probably guess. Tony Gwynn made it to 170 in 1995, longer than any other hitter since 1980.
2) Speaking of Tony Gwynn ...
Mr. Padre comes up often when people talk about Arraez's plate discipline. In an era where players are often valued based on their power numbers, Arraez is a throwback. His prolific bat-to-ball skills remind fans and followers of the game of Gwynn even before he played for the Hall of Famer's franchise.
Arraez has won consecutive batting titles, and now has a chance to win three straight for as many teams. After capturing it for the Twins in 2022 (.316), and the Marlins in 2023 (.354), he currently leads the National League with a .320 batting average. If he takes the title, he'll still be less than halfway to catching Gwynn. The San Diego icon claimed eight batting titles, with a run of three straight beginning in 1987 and four consecutive starting in '94.
Just last season, Arraez created buzz for his pursuit of a .400 average. He was above that mark as late as June 24, before dropping off for the remainder of the season. San Diego native Ted Williams was the last to hit .400, doing so in 1941. Gwynn's famous pursuit in 1994 ended on Aug. 11 because of a strike, with his average sitting at .394.
3) Arraez doesn't miss
OK, this isn't completely true, although it feels like it. The 27-year-old has a career-best 4.4% strikeout rate this season, the lowest among qualified hitters by a wide margin. Steven Kwan is next in line at 9.4%.
Arraez's streak isn't the byproduct of incredible plate discipline. It's an example of a guy who knows what pitches he can get to. He actually swings at pitches outside of the zone at a surprisingly high rate: 35.4% compared with a league average of 27.7%.
The difference is Arraez almost always gets a piece of the ball when he does swing out of the zone. When swinging at pitches outside of the strike zone, Arraez makes contact 88.3% of the time. The league average is way down at 57.8%. The contact rate on pitches inside the zone across the league is 82&. Arraez? How about 94.7%?
Incredible.
