With another single in Friday night’s loss to the Toronto Blue Jays, Boston Red Sox slugger Xander Bogaerts extended his hitting streak again.
Boston Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts now carries the longest consecutive hitting streak in Major League Baseball at 20 games.
In the shadows of Jackie Bradley Jr’s concluded 29-game hitting streak, Bogaerts started his own May 6 against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium. Featured nightly third in the batting order, tucked between Dustin Pedroia and David Ortiz, Bogaerts has become a singles-lacing machine.
With 68 hits on the year, he leads the American League in batting average at .346 and singles with 48. During the streak, Bogaerts is hitting .379, going 33-for-87, slamming four home runs while driving in 13 runs, half his total RBI on the year. His OPS sits at an eye-dropping .901.
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One of the most highly touted prospects for the Red Sox in recent years, Bogaerts won the Silver Slugger award last year, his second full season, hitting .320. This season, you can see his maturity as a hitter grow nightly.
When stepping up to the plate, he stays in the box staring down the pitcher. He is confident in his abilities and not afraid to swing. Sure, he is on a pace to strike out nearly 100 times in 2016, but approach at the dish has improved, a far cry from 2014 and whiffing 140 times.
Bogaerts was projected in the minors to slug 20 homers a year. As he learns the game and thrives at the plate, he may hit that number this year. As long as Pedroia and Ortiz do their part surrounding him, Bogaerts will get good pitches to hit. What makes him a dangerous hitter long term is his ability to slash singles. Featuring a compact swing, he hits the ball to all fields. If he can get the ball into the outfield, he is hitting .667. When he makes contact, his BABIP is .399.
The Red Sox, long a team to overrate their prospects, hit the lottery with this kid. Did we mention Bogaerts is a mere 23?
In a season where the offense is rolling on a historic pace, scoring 5.86 runs a game, hitting .294 as a team and banging out a league high in doubles and triples, Bogaerts feels comfortable.
This comfort is not only at the plate, but in the field. Two years ago, Red Sox manager John Farrell moved him to third base mid-season after Will Middlebrooks could no longer hit. Bogaerts sulked and, in his first full season, hit .240. After committing 11 errors last year, and 10 in 99 games the year before, Bogaerts has made one this year for a mind boggling fielding percentage of .994. Yes, the range factor numbers are down this year, a RF/9 of 3.53 compared with the league average of 4.22. Still, he grows as a player every time he takes the field.
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With Bradley Jr returning to human status at the plate, the focus from fans and press shifts to Bogaerts. An intense man on the field, you get the sense watching him every day he thrives on it.