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Opening Day hitting streaks

Posted by Andy on April 2, 2010

Following on my post, here are active hitting streaks from consecutive Opening Day games, using the Game Finder and searching just within a team's first game of each season.

Jim Thome has homered the last two Opening Days:

Rk Date Tm Opp Rslt PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF ROE GDP SB CS WPA RE24 aLI BOP Pos. Summary
2 2008-03-31 CHW CLE L 8-10 5 5 2 2 0 0 2 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -0.146 1.014 2.050 3 DH
3 2009-04-07 CHW KCR W 4-2 4 4 2 3 0 0 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.617 2.722 2.080 4 DH
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 4/1/2010.

You might have to guess a while to come up with the other two guys who have also done this:

Rk Date Tm Opp Rslt PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF ROE GDP SB CS WPA RE24 aLI BOP Pos. Summary
1 2008-03-31 CLE CHW W 10-8 4 3 2 3 0 0 1 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.282 2.926 1.543 8 RF
2 2009-04-06 SEA MIN W 6-1 4 3 2 1 0 0 1 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.157 1.868 .660 2 CF
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 4/1/2010.
Rk Date Tm Opp Rslt PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF ROE GDP SB CS WPA RE24 aLI BOP Pos. Summary
1 2008-03-31 KCR DET W 5-4 5 5 1 1 0 0 1 2 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -0.049 0.129 1.914 3 3B
2 2009-04-07 KCR CHW L 2-4 4 4 1 1 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.059 0.448 1.392 7 3B
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 4/1/2010.

Who are these guys? The top one is Franklin Gutierrez, who totaled 26 HR in the last 2 seasons but had one on each Opening Day. The bottom one is Alex Gordon, who did the same while amassing only 22 HR over the 2 years.

Incidentally, Adam Dunn has homered in 4 out of the last 5 Opening Day games.

Dunn is one of the leaders for most consecutive Opening Day games with at least one RBI (active streaks only) with 5:

Rk Date Tm Opp Rslt PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF ROE GDP SB CS WPA RE24 aLI BOP Pos. Summary
1 2005-04-04 CIN NYM W 7-6 4 4 2 2 0 0 2 5 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.660 3.739 1.863 5 LF
2 2006-04-03 CIN CHC L 7-16 5 4 2 2 0 0 1 2 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0.116 0.300 1.066 4 LF
3 2007-04-02 CIN CHC W 5-1 5 4 2 2 0 0 2 3 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.236 2.509 .552 2 LF
4 2008-03-31 CIN ARI L 2-4 4 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -0.067 -0.451 1.205 5 LF
5 2009-04-06 WSN FLA L 6-12 4 4 2 2 1 0 1 4 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.076 2.322 .543 4 LF
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 4/1/2010.

You might have to guess a while to get the guy who shares this record, one Xavier Nady:

Rk Date Tm Opp Rslt PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF ROE GDP SB CS WPA RE24 aLI BOP Pos. Summary
1 2005-04-04 SDP COL L 10-12 5 4 2 2 0 0 2 4 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0.263 2.412 1.046 7 CF
2 2006-04-03 NYM WSN W 3-2 4 4 1 4 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.233 2.381 .738 7 RF
3 2007-04-02 PIT HOU W 4-2 4 4 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.301 0.552 .888 6 RF
4 2008-03-31 PIT ATL W 12-11 7 7 4 4 1 0 2 4 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.627 3.558 1.905 5 RF
5 2009-04-06 NYY BAL L 5-10 5 4 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 -0.101 -0.146 1.326 7 RF
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 4/1/2010.

Now to hits. Here's a long one by Bobby Abreu:

Rk Date Tm Opp Rslt PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF ROE GDP SB CS WPA RE24 aLI BOP Pos. Summary
1 1997-04-01 HOU ATL W 2-1 3 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.009 0.169 .750 7 RF
2 1998-03-31 PHI NYM L 0-1 6 6 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -0.115 -0.040 1.850 7 RF
3 1999-04-05 PHI ATL W 7-4 4 4 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -0.002 -0.311 1.293 6 RF
4 2000-04-04 PHI ARI L 4-6 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.049 1.069 1.350 9 PH
5 2001-04-02 PHI FLA W 6-5 6 6 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 -0.214 -0.999 1.517 3 RF
6 2002-04-01 PHI ATL L 2-7 4 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -0.038 -0.503 .453 3 RF
7 2003-03-31 PHI FLA W 8-5 5 4 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.013 0.619 .340 3 RF
8 2004-04-05 PHI PIT L 1-2 4 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.124 0.539 1.945 5 RF
9 2005-04-04 PHI WSN W 8-4 5 5 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -0.049 -1.485 .694 3 RF
10 2006-04-03 PHI STL L 5-13 5 5 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -0.026 -0.605 .350 3 RF
11 2007-04-02 NYY TBD W 9-5 5 5 2 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 -0.086 -0.506 1.468 3 RF
12 2008-04-01 NYY TOR W 3-2 4 4 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -0.007 -0.182 .788 3 RF
13 2009-04-06 LAA OAK W 3-0 4 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -0.060 -0.925 .630 3 RF
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 4/1/2010.

That's 13 straight years he's had a hit on Opening Day. Wow. I'd like to research the longest such streaks of all time...(count on seeing that in a future post.)

Incidentally, Mike Lowell has an active streak of hits on Opening Day dating back to the year 2000 but it seems likely to end this year unless he gets traded in the next couple of days, as he'll be mainly riding the pine for the Red Sox.

Three players have scored at least one run on the last 4 Opening Days: Rickie Weeks, Chipper Jones, and Travis Hafner. I'm not going to post the results...you'll have to take my word on that one.

Finally, one player has tripled on the last two Opening Day games, and that's Johnny Damon. I would bet against that happening again this year.

Related posts:

    Opening Day pitching streaks
    Opening Day Odds and Ends
    Inexperienced Opening Day Starters
    Most Opening Days with a Hit – Baseball-Reference PI
    Teammates with simultaneous 20-game hitting streaks

This entry was posted on Friday, April 2nd, 2010 at 7:08 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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