People love to say «you can’t predict baseball,» and here’s another chapter in the long history of that being the case. There’s a major-league player who just became the first in the expansion era (1961-present) to record a hit in 12 consecutive plate appearances, tying the overall MLB record. He was in the No. 9 hole for the Royals, one of the worst teams in baseball, on Tuesday evening. His name? Tyler Tolbert.
Tolbert was a career .247 hitter in 85 at-bats at the big-league level before he started this streak. In seven minor-league seasons, he is a career .246 hitter. If we were tasked with predicting who could get a hit in 12 straight plate appearances, we’d get deep into the hundreds before we even thought about him. But that’s why they play the games.
Things started innocently enough on Saturday against the Phillies with a weak infield hit. He then singled on a grounder with eyes to right field before being removed from that game. On Sunday, he didn’t even play. Monday, he was back in the lineup as Kansas City closed out its series with Philadelphia. Tolbert singled on another grounder, doubled on a line drive to the gap to drive home a run, before powering up for a home run. It was the first of his career.
He singled two more times to go 5 for 5.
Then came Tuesday evening in New York in a wild 16-12 win over the Mets. Tolbert was slotted ninth in the Royals’ lineup. He hit a two-run home run in the second inning.
Hey, when you’re hot, you’re hot.
Tolbert would single in the fourth, reach on another infield single in the fifth and then yet another infield single in the sixth.
And, are you ready for this? In the seventh inning, he had another infield single to tie the all-time record. This was in the midst of the Royals turning a 9-4 deficit to the Mets into a 16-9 lead, by the way.
That’s 12 consecutive plate appearances with a hit for Tolbert. That tied him for the MLB record.
The MLB record for consecutive hits in at-bats is 12, which was done by Johnny Kling in 1902, Pinky Higgins in 1938, Walt Dropo in 1952 and Juan Miranda in 2024. If we made the requirement plate appearances, it’s just Kling and Dropo at 12. And now Tolbert has joined the latter group.
Tolbert came to the plate again in the ninth inning with a chance to break the record, but he flied out to right field. He was unable to hold it all for himself, but he still made history and became part of the MLB record book.
Tolbert’s batting average this season was .200 before the streak. It is now .396. Gotta love those small-sample jumps.
Further, Tolbert has back-to-back five-hit games. The list of players in MLB history with back-to-back five-hit games isn’t very long. It had previously only happened twice: Hi Myers for the Brooklyn Robins in 1917 and Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente with the 1970 Pirates. Tolbert has joined them with two straight five-hit games.
What an incredibly unlikely run.
