Halfway to DiMaggio: Arenado Sets Rockies Hit-Streak Record

Nolan Arenado of the Colorado Rockies broke his team’s record for the longest consecutive game hitting streak Thursday night, and he joked that trying to sustain it “feels like forever.” Arenado’s 28-game hitting streak is only halfway to Joe DiMaggio’s legendary 1941 streak of 56 games. Arenado connected on the third-inning fastball from Texas Rangers starter Matt Harrison to extend his streak.

Arenado joked, “My cousin said, ‘Dude, you’re halfway!’  I’m like, ‘Halfway?’ I’m like, ‘Dude, this has felt like forever.'” The previous Rockies record was held by Michael Cuddyer, who hit in 27 consecutive games last year. The Washington Nationals’ Denard Span hit in 29 consecutive games last year.

Arenado’s family has taken to joking about the streak and DiMaggio. Arenado said of his father, “My dad was joking around with me the other day and said, ‘Hey, you’ve got to get 57, and I was like, ‘Yeah, right, we’ll see about that. One game at a time.”

Arenado started his streak on April 9; he has hit .360 since then.

On the night DiMaggio was stopped, he and teammate Lefty Gomez took a cab to Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium because of the overflow crowd going to the game. On the way, the cabdriver said to Dimaggio, “I’ve got a strange feeling in my bones that you’re going to get stopped tonight.” He was right; third baseman Ken Keltner playing deep and toward the third-base line, stopped two smashes down the third-base line and threw DiMaggio out, as a muddy ground hampered DiMaggio’s speed.

Pete Rose, whose 44-game hit streak stands behind only 19th-century player Willie Keeler’s to DiMaggio’s marks, had an interesting story of the game in which he was stopped, too. Gene Garber, pitching for the Atlanta Braves with a 16-4 lead in the ninth inning, struck Rose out by throwing him consecutive change-ups instead of challenging him with harder stuff. In the clubhouse, Rose was irritated, noting Garber’s leap of joy after striking him out, and said, “I was a little surprised in a game that was 16-4, he pitched me like it was the seventh game of the World Series. I guess he thought I was Joe DiMaggio up there.”