WASHINGTON – No season – even the best truly historic campaigns – can be perfect. Baseball is too hard, too stressful, fundamentally rooted in failure. Whether it’s a team or a player, even the most rudimentary season will come with flashes. Marlins second baseman Luis Aries may have already outgrown him.
Because after enduring a long injury-free season that spanned the past three games, Arraez resumed his run into history in emphatic fashion in Miami’s 6-5 win over the Nationals on Friday at Nationals Park.
390 in the team’s 70th game in 2023. He drove in three runs and scored on two runs before Yuli Guryel scored the deciding inning of The second out on Garrett Cooper’s go-ahead hit single in the eighth helped the Marlins salvage Sandy Alcantara’s shaky start again.
“Baseball is hard,” said Araz, “and hitting 400.4 is hard—but not impossible.” “I want to take a hit with every hit.”
400 over an entire season since Ted Williams in 1941, or close to that since Tony Gwynn’s . 394 mark in the strike-shortened 1994 season. In fact, many thought this might be the week Arraez’s preseason search for the . 400 finally failed. And maybe it was. Even after Big Friday Night, Arraez will need to hit four more consecutive hits or bat at . 500 clip on his next 22 at-bats to get to . 400 — on the shortstop, anyway.
However, the season runs for 3 1/2 months. So maybe all Arraez needs to do is get hot again, and keep it up. Friday’s efforts legitimately put him back within striking distance, certainly in better shape than he was a few hours ago. Arraez arrived at Nationals Park on Friday hitting . 378 — his lowest batting average entering the game since June 2 (. 374). It ended the day up 12 points, closing the gap on five swings.
Five by five, said Araz. “This is beautiful.”
Ariz singled to lead the game, cracked a two-run homer to right field on his second at-bat, and added three more singles in his next three at bats, including an RBI single in the fourth. Arraez’s second five-hit game in 23 made him just the second player in franchise history to accomplish the feat multiple times in a season, along with Juan Pierre in 2005. The spring also brought him back to tie with Bo Bichette for the MLB lead in strikeouts, with 96. The closest player in the National League is Ronald Acuna Jr., with 92.
Acuña also ranks second behind Arraez in MLB in batting average. His .327 mark is 63 points behind Arraez, who won the 2022 AL title with Minnesota. Arraez also leads the MLB in on-base percentage at .441.
“What he does is something special,” said national team player Trevor Williams. “To get five hits like he did today and get away with good pitches from the hitters, he’s a really good hitter. When you plan to play a hitter like that, you see a .380, you see a .400 and you say, ‘Okay, he’s going to get his hits.’ … That’s it. kind of hitter. He’s a great addition to this lineup.”
The last time Arraez was above . 400 was at the end of the game on June 10, hitting . 402 after the Marlins’ victory over the White Sox. He then went 1-for-17 over his next four matches, including 0-for-12 across the club’s three-match series in Seattle. That streak marked the first time all year that Aries failed to record a hit in three straight games.
“It feels like a little funk, [that’s when] It’s going to be really exciting,” said manager Skip Shumaker. “He went 0 for 15 or whatever it was and today he came in and said he was going to get four [hits]. He says that every day.
“A lot of guys think a game of 0 against 15 can become 0 against 19. It’s the guy who thinks he’s going to get really hot when he has a slack. That’s the difference in mentality, from elite guys and guys who are afraid of failure.”
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