The reincarnation of Travis Hafner has driven in at least two runs in each of his last three games – the fourth such streak of his career and his first since since 2006.
Hafner is the 7th Tribesman in the past 50 years with at least four three-game multi-RBI streaks, but still well behind Manny Ramirez‘s record of 14.
Hafner’s six-game streak in 2005 is tied with Juan Gonzalez (2001) and Andre Thornton (1985) for the longest in team history.
As Tom Hamilton said last night, “the magic is back!”
Travis Hafner‘s two-out, two-run homer was the Tribe’s 4th walk-off in the past two weeks, bringing back memories of 1995.
It was also the Tribe’s first walk-off when trailing with 2 outs since Bill Selby‘s grand slam off Mariano Rivera in 2002.
It’s hard to believe it’s been that long since the most dramatic type of walk-off, especially since they had eight during the Jacobs Field heyday.
A few notes on the first 1/16th of the season…
Asdrubal Cabrera is the 11th Indian in the Jacobs Field era with four homers through 10 games (Travis Hafner is the only one to have done it twice). The others are a fairly predictable crew, but one name did stand out: Kevin Mitchell. While he only hit four homers in his 20-game Indians career, all four of them came in the first 10 games of the 1997 season.
I tried to come up with a good not-so-obvious Manny Ramirez note following his retirement the other day, but couldn’t come up with anything original so I just decided to let it pass without a mention. Then today I was looking something up on Baseball-Reference and noticed that Ramirez is the Indians all-time leader in games played in right field (898 games).
I was actually shocked to see his name atop that list. He had a nice run here, but that’s a fairly small number of games for a team that’s been around 110 years. Manny’s 898 games in right field is the fewest games by the leader at any position for the Indians aside from DH. And by the end of the season, it’s possible that Travis Hafner (currently at 809 games) will surpass Ramirez.
Michael Brantley and Travis Hafner each extended their hit streaks to seven games on Saturday night against the Mariners. They have each hit safety in every game in which they’ve played this season.
It’s the first time the Indians have had two players start a season with a seven-game hit streak since 2006 with Jhonny Peralta (9 games) and Victor Martinez (15).
Brantley’s streak is the longest by an Indians leadoff hitter since Milton Bradley started the 2003 season off with hits in 14 consecutive games.
The longest season-opening hit streak (since 1919) belongs to Johnny Temple, who hit safety in 19 straight games to being the 1961 season.
Matt LaPorta found his swing in Columbus. Or at least his home run swing.
Since being recalled on on June 27, LaPorta is 5-17 in five games. Three of his five hits have been home runs – one each in his last three games.
A three-game home run streak is nothing unusual, Jhonny Peralta, Mark DeRosa and Travis Hafner each had one last year. But a streak in which the only hits are home runs is a little more rare.
Over the last 50 seasons only seven different Indians, not including LaPorta, had a home run streak of at least three games in which their only hits were homers. LaPorta’s streak is the first since Hafner in 2005. The king of the all-or-nothing streak is, of course, Jim Thome.
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