Ian Kinsler is congratulated by Eugenio Suarez after hitting a three-run homer in the ninth inning against the Astros on Saturday.
Miguel Cabrera has never done it. Neither did Alan Trammell, who also wore #3 for the Detroit Tigers.
Ian Kinsler is red-hot and chasing some historic names on the Tigers’ all-time hit list. After two hits on Saturday against the Houston Astros, Kinsler now has at least two hits in each of his last seven games, a streak surpassed by only a handful of Detroit batters in history (since 1914). With multiple hits in his next two games, Kinsler would match the franchise record, held jointly by Heinie Manush (1926) and Gee Walker (1936).
While it might seem like a tall order to collect two or more hits in nine straight games, the way Kinsler is swinging the bat gives him a good chance. On Saturday afternoon, Kinsler’s second hit was a dramatic two-out home run to deep left-center field that vaulted the Tigers past the ‘Stros. If momentum is real, “Klutch Kinsler” has it on his side heading into today’s series finale in Houston.
A glance at the list of Detroit’s longest multi-hit hitting streaks reveals some familiar names, but it also shows how difficult it is to string together several multi-hit games – even for great hitters. In the last 100 years, 17 Tigers’ hitters have had at least two hits in 7 or more consecutive games. Al Kaline did it twice, George Kell once, and Ty Cobb did it five times. Cabrera’s longest streak was six games in 2011. Trammell’s longest streak was six games in 1987, the year he should have won the MVP award. Norm Cash never got to seven games, and neither did Hank Greenberg, a Hall of Famer and one of the best hitters in team history.
Many of the players at the top of the list of consecutive multi-hit games are leadoff batters, it helps to have many chances to get to the plate. Walker hit leadoff frequently, and so did Barney McCosky who had an eight-game streak in 1941.
The last Tiger to have at least seven straight multi-hit games was Magglio Ordonez. But Maggs did it over the course of two seasons: the last game of the 2009 season and the first six games of 2010. The last player to do it in one season was Frank Bolling, who had exactly two hits in seven straight games back in June of 1960. That was quite a stretch for the normally light-hitting Bolling, who hit 8th in manager Jimmy Dykes’ lineup.
On Sunday, Kinsler will face Scott Feldman, a former teammate on the Texas Rangers who he has faced only a handful of times (1-for-6). Feldman won’t be helping his former teammate out any at all, but the way Kinsler has been going, he may not need any assistance. Two or more hits on Sunday and he’ll join Cobb and Manush (Hall of Famers both), Walker, McCosky, and Hoot Evers, an excellent hitter who spent nine years with the Tigers, and missed three prime seasons while serving in World War II. Most Tigers’ fans probably never heard of him, but Evers was a very popular player in the Motor City. In the late 1940s, when Evers came to the plate at Briggs Stadium, he was greeted with a chorus of “H – O – O – O – T” from fans. He spent a decade as farm director and scout for the Tigers in the 1970s and Jim Leyland cited him as a great influence on his career.
Now, Kinsler finds himself chasing HOOOOT and Ty and Barney and the rest. Get a hit Ian! Then get a hit again!
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MOST CONSECUTIVE GAMES WITH TWO OR MORE HITS, DETROIT TIGERS*
Gee Walker ……….. 9 (1936)
Heinie Manush ….. 9 (1926)
Hoot Evers ……….. 8 (1948)
Barney McCosky … 8 (1941)
Ty Cobb ……………. 8 (1922)
Ty Cobb ……………. 8 (1918)
Ty Cobb ……………. 8 (1917)
Ian Kinsler ………… 7 (2014)
18 more streaks of 7 games by 16 players
*Since 1914