Beat the Streak is back for the 2022 season — and the $5.6 million prize is still up for grabs.
The idea is simple — pick one player (or two) every day who you think will get a hit. The objective — surpass Joe DiMaggio’s record-long 56-game hitting streak — is a bit more challenging.
Let’s take a closer at the action from yesterday and today:
Longest active streak: 28 (StandPat)
Longest season streak: 28 (StandPat, cfurst)
Longest streak all-time: 51
Most popular picks (yesterday)
1. Freddie Freeman, Dodgers (24.1%)*
2. Trea Turner, Dodgers (16.7%)*
3. Tim Anderson (7.1%)
4. Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Blue Jays (4.04%)
5. DJ LeMahieu (4.02%)*
* – Recorded a hit
Most popular picks (this season)
1. Trea Turner, Dodgers (10.5%)
2. Freddie Freeman, Dodgers (7.1%)
3. Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Blue Jays (4.4%)
4. Nick Castellanos (3.88%)
5. Starling Marte (3.84%)
Trey Mancini, Orioles (at Yankees)
Mancini has owned Yankees starter Jordan Montgomery. The O’s slugger has faced only three pitchers more times than he’s faced Montgomery, and he’s batting .435 (10-for-23) with a home run and a 1.084 OPS against the southpaw, including six hits in his last 10 at-bats vs. Montgomery going back to the start of 2021. Mancini gets the generally favorable right-on-left matchup, too — he has a .907 OPS vs. lefties since the start of last season, and a 145 wRC+, meaning he’s been 45% better than league average against them.
Carlos Correa, Twins (vs. Tigers)
Correa has never met a Michael Pineda pitch he didn’t like. The star shortstop has more hits against Pineda than any other pitcher in his career. In 26 plate appearances against the big righty, Correa is batting .478/.500/1.044 — that’s a 1.544 OPS. Correa is 11-for-23 with three home runs and seven extra-base hits off Pineda. He might be scuffling at the plate early this season, but he’s still Carlos Correa, and this matchup is too juicy to ignore.
Yasmani Grandal, White Sox (vs. Royals)
Grandal’s 2022 stats might not inspire a ton of confidence (he’s batting .152), but call this one a wild card pick based on his long history against Zack Greinke. Grandal has faced Greinke more than any other pitcher in his career, with solid results — he’s 12-for-45 (.261) with a pair of home runs and five extra-base hits overall, and 10-for-30 (.333) with a homer and two doubles since the start of 2017. Greinke isn’t striking anybody out this season (just 2 K’s in 16 innings over three starts), and the switch-hitting Grandal will have the platoon advantage. He can get one hit to fall.
Guardians (at Angels — Shohei Ohtani)
It’s hard just to put the ball in play against Ohtani. The reigning AL MVP is striking out 44.1% of the batters he’s faced this season, the third-highest strikeout rate in the Majors. The swing-and-miss rates against his two chief secondary pitches, his slider and splitter, are astronomical — Ohtani is generating a 60% whiff rate on his slider and a 56.3% whiff rate on his splitter. Seven of the 16 at-bats ending on his slider have been strikeouts, and 11 of the 14 at-bats ending on his splitter have been strikeouts. Even José Ramírez is a risky bet today.
Royals (at White Sox — Dylan Cease)
Cease is a high-strikeout pitcher, and he dominated the Royals in his breakout 2021 season. Since the start of ’21, Cease has averaged 12.1 strikeouts per nine innings and K’d almost a third of the batters he’s faced. Against Kansas City last year, he had nearly twice as many strikeouts (35) as hits allowed (18) in five starts. With the exception of Andrew Benintendi, the Royals’ main bats haven’t hit very well against Cease, either — Whit Merrifield is a .208 hitter vs. Cease in 24 career at-bats, Salvador Perez is a .267 hitter in 15 at-bats and Carlos Santana is a .118 hitter in 17 at-bats.
NOTABLE BATTER VS. PITCHER MATCHUPS
Juan Soto (Nationals): 8-for-19 (.421), 2 HR, 5 XBH, 3 BB, 2 K vs. Pablo López
Mookie Betts (Dodgers): 4-for-10 (.400), HR, 2B, 3 K vs. Zac Gallen
Jazz Chisholm Jr. (Marlins): 3-for-10 (.300), 2 HR, 1 K vs. Erick Fedde
Cody Bellinger (Dodgers): 1-for-13 (.077), 3B, 4 K vs. Zac Gallen
Starling Marte (Mets): 1-for-12 (.083), 0 XBH, 4 K vs. Steven Matz
Nick Ahmed (D-backs): 1-for-14 (.071), 2B, 3 K vs. Julio Urías