Those Bees are none other than youngsters Jackie Bradley Jr., Xander Bogaerts and Mookie Betts who, with help from Boston’s over-30 mainstays Hanley Ramirez, Dustin Pedroia and David Ortiz, have propelled the high-flying Red Sox to the top of the AL East standings.
More on Boston’s hot start after the jump.
Jackie Bradley’s recently concluded 29 game hit streak is the second longest by a Red Sox player since 1913, eclipsed only by Nomar Garciaparra‘s 30 game run in 1997. It’s the 35th hit streak of 20+ games by a Boston player, 20% of which were compiled by just two players, Garciaparra with four and Wade Boggs with three. That franchise total of 35 hit streaks of 20+ games ranks in the top 5 on the franchise list since 1913.
- Pirates – 44 streaks
- Cardinals – 42
- Indians – 39
- Senators/Twins – 36
- Red Sox, Tigers, Browns/Orioles – 35
At the other end of the list are the Rays, the only franchise still without a player recording a 20 game hit streak.
Bradley’s 29 game streak is among the longest so early in the season, placing 6th on this list of hit streaks ending before June.
| Rk | Name | Strk Start | Strk End | Games | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | Tm | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rico Carty | 1970-04-08 | 1970-05-15 | 31 | 113 | 31 | 51 | 9 | 0 | 8 | 30 | 20 | .451 | .530 | .743 | 1.273 | ATL |
| 2 | Andre Ethier | 2011-04-02 | 2011-05-06 | 30 | 116 | 15 | 46 | 10 | 0 | 3 | 17 | 14 | .397 | .462 | .560 | 1.022 | LAD |
| 3 | Ryan Zimmerman | 2009-04-08 | 2009-05-12 | 30 | 131 | 26 | 50 | 11 | 0 | 8 | 26 | 11 | .382 | .427 | .649 | 1.075 | WSN |
| 4 | Luis Gonzalez | 1999-04-11 | 1999-05-18 | 30 | 115 | 25 | 46 | 11 | 1 | 7 | 25 | 16 | .400 | .466 | .696 | 1.162 | ARI |
| 5 | Ron LeFlore | 1976-04-17 | 1976-05-27 | 30 | 130 | 21 | 51 | 12 | 3 | 1 | 14 | 9 | .392 | .432 | .554 | .986 | DET |
| 6 | Jackie Bradley | 2016-04-24 | 2016-05-25 | 29 | 106 | 19 | 44 | 9 | 3 | 8 | 30 | 14 | .415 | .488 | .783 | 1.271 | BOS |
Bradley and Garciaparra are looking over their shoulders at Xander Boegarts, currently with a hit in 24 games and counting through the end of May. Boston is just the third team to have two players record a 20 game hit streak before June, after the 1943 Cardinals and 2012 Giants. It’s a small sample but a good harbinger for the Red Sox that both of those teams were pennant winners. Those two streaks by the 1943 Cardinals were among four for that team that were running concurrently (i.e. all streaks overlapped each other for at least one game).
| Rk | Name | Strk Start ▴ | Strk End | Games | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | Tm | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Whitey Kurowski | 1943-04-27 | 1943-05-23 | 22 | 90 | 16 | 32 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 13 | 5 | .356 | .389 | .478 | .867 | STL |
| 2 | Lou Klein | 1943-05-09 | 1943-05-30 | 21 | 89 | 17 | 27 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 11 | 8 | .303 | .361 | .539 | .900 | STL |
| 3 | Stan Musial | 1943-05-16 | 1943-06-05 | 22 | 83 | 18 | 32 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 19 | 15 | .386 | .485 | .614 | 1.099 | STL |
| 4 | Harry Walker | 1943-05-22 | 1943-06-15 | 22 | 80 | 18 | 36 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 8 | 9 | .450 | .506 | .638 | 1.143 | STL |
The 1936 Indians are the only other team to have four players with concurrent 20 game hit streaks when they had five such players that July.
| Rk | Name | Strk Start ▴ | Strk End | Games | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | Tm | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Earl Averill | 1936-07-04 | 1936-07-25 | 20 | 89 | 29 | 42 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 25 | 7 | .472 | .510 | .764 | 1.274 | CLE |
| 2 | Hal Trosky | 1936-07-05 | 1936-08-02 | 28 | 126 | 26 | 52 | 7 | 2 | 11 | 39 | 5 | .413 | .435 | .762 | 1.197 | CLE |
| 3 | Roy Weatherly | 1936-07-09 | 1936-07-28 | 20 | 86 | 20 | 39 | 11 | 2 | 2 | 19 | 3 | .453 | .472 | .698 | 1.170 | CLE |
| 4 | Joe Vosmik | 1936-07-11 | 1936-08-04 | 20 | 82 | 12 | 36 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 17 | 7 | .439 | .483 | .573 | 1.056 | CLE |
| 5 | Odell Hale | 1936-07-11 | 1936-07-30 | 21 | 99 | 26 | 42 | 12 | 3 | 4 | 12 | 2 | .424 | .436 | .727 | 1.163 | CLE |
Boegart’s streak has contributed to a total of 42 runs through Boston’s first 50 games to become just the fifth Boston shortstop since 1913 to exceed 40 runs over that stretch of the season, following Johnny Pesky (1946), Vern Stephens (1950), John Valentin (1995) and Nomar Garciaparra (2003). Boegarts’ 73 hits through Boston’s first 50 games are the most for a Red Sox shortstop since 1913 and rank among the ten highest totals by a shortstop for any team.
Joining Boegarts with 40 runs in 50 games is Mookie Betts, giving Boston two such players for the first time since 1951. Both Boegarts and Betts are aged 23, making them only the second pair of teammates so young with that start to a season, following Mark Koenig and Lou Gehrig who recorded 40+ runs in the Yankees’ first 50 games in both 1926 and 1927. Betts’s 3 home run game on Tuesday is just the 22nd by a leadoff hitter and the first for a Red Sox player batting first. Betts is the fifth youngest of those players, the youngest of whom, Tommy Brown, is also the first to accomplish this feat, in a losing cause for the Dodgers on 1950-09-18. Betts’s 40 RBI through Boston’s first 52 games are tied with Ian Kinsler in 2009 for the most by a hitter batting leadoff in any season since 1913.
Supporting the new Killer Bees are veterans Ramirez, Pedroia and Ortiz, giving Boston four regulars batting .300 as of this writing and seven hitting over .280. That team effort has resulted in the Red Sox scoring 103 more runs than last year over the first 50 games of the season. That’s the ninth highest such season-to-season scoring increase since 1913 and the second highest since 1955, eclipsed in the latter instance only by the 120 run improvement by the 2004 Tigers after their disastrous 119 loss season the year before.
It’s a good thing for Boston that they’ve scored so many runs as their starting pitching has yet to show its best form, with Steven Wright and Rick Porcello turning in better than expected performances, but David Price and the maddeningly inconsistent Clay Buchholz still searching for their grooves. Price has been ably supported by Boston’s offense, sporting a stellar 7-1 record (.875 W-L%) despite a rocky 5.11 ERA (87 ERA+). Other qualified pitchers may previously have had that imbalance between W-L% and ERA+ at this or other points of the season, but only Byron Houck posted a W-L% higher than 1% of his ERA+ for a full, qualified season, with a 14-6 record (.700 W-L%) and 67 ERA+ in 176 IP for the 1913 Athletics. Maybe another good harbinger for Boston as those A’s were world champions.
