Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder Ender Inciarte pushed his hitting streak to 18 games with a 10th-inning double in Monday’s 5-4 loss to the Washington Nationals, thus extending his own franchise rookie record.
Inciarte nearly saw his streak come to an end, as he’d registered just one walk in his four plate appearances after grounding out in the eighth inning. However, a ninth-inning homer by fellow rookie outfielder David Peralta sent the D-Backs to extra innings, allowing Inciarte to extend his team record.
Inciarte‘s 18-game hitting streak is tied for the second-longest by any rookie this year, matching the run put together by Chicago White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu from June 15 to July 4, per ESPN.com.
The season’s longest streak by a rookie also came courtesy of Abreu, who hit in 21 consecutive games from July 6 to August 1. With his streaks separated by just the one contest on July 5, Abreu hit safely 39 times in a span of 40 games.
As for Inciarte, while the 23-year-old owns a strong .316/.365/.405 batting line over the course of his streak, it’s the 27-year-old Peralta who has unquestionably been the Diamondbacks’ more impressive rookie outfielder in terms of batting this year.
Inciarte was having a miserable season at the plate before his streak started, and he still owns a rather unsavory .266/.302/.330 batting line heading into Tuesday’s game against the Nationals.
Peralta, meanwhile, has been a menace to opposing pitchers, posting a .290/.320/.461 slash line in 64 games, with six home runs, six triples, 31 RBI and 31 runs.
However, Inciarte‘s strong defense shouldn’t be forgotten about, as FanGraphs.com has him at 1.5 Wins Above Replacement (WAR) through 81 games—due almost entirely to his work with the glove. Peralta, on the other hand, has been worth just 0.7 WAR through 64 games by FanGraphs‘ measure, grading out as a below-average defensive outfielder.
While it’s unwise to place too much emphasis on advanced defensive metrics with such a small sample size, there’s likely something to the notion that Inciarte and Peralta are much closer in terms of value than their batting stats seem to indicate.
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