Hitting Streak - Major League Baseball Records

Major League Baseball Records

See also: List of Major League Baseball records considered unbreakable

There have been 55 occurrences in Major League Baseball where a player had a hitting streak of at least 30 games. Multiple streaks in the same season have occurred in 1922 (George Sisler and Rogers Hornsby), 1987 (Paul Molitor and Benito Santiago), 1997 (Nomar Garciaparra and Sandy Alomar, Jr.), 1999 (Vladimir Guerrero and Luis Gonzalez), 2006 (Chase Utley and Willy Taveras), and 2011 (Andre Ethier and Dan Uggla). In addition, 1924 included one whole streak (Sam Rice) and the beginning of another (George Sisler). A similar event occurred in 2006 with two whole streaks (Utley and Taveras) and the end of another (Jimmy Rollins).

Rank	Player	Team	Games	Year(s)
01	Joe DiMaggio	New York Yankees	56	1941
02	Willie Keeler	Baltimore Orioles	45 (44)	1897
03	Pete Rose	Cincinnati Reds	44	1978
04	Bill Dahlen	Chicago Colts	42	1894
05	George Sisler	St. Louis Browns	41	1922
06	Ty Cobb	Detroit Tigers	40	1911
07	Paul Molitor	Milwaukee Brewers	39	1987
08	Jimmy Rollins	Philadelphia Phillies	38 (36)	2005–06
09	Tommy Holmes	Boston Braves	37	1945
10	Gene DeMontreville	Washington Senators	36	1896–97
11	Fred Clarke	Louisville Colonels	35	1895
	Ty Cobb	Detroit Tigers	35	1917
	George Sisler	St. Louis Browns	35 (34)	1924–25
	Luis Castillo	Florida Marlins	35	2002
	Chase Utley	Philadelphia Phillies	35	2006
16	George McQuinn	St. Louis Browns	34	1938
	Dom DiMaggio	Boston Red Sox	34	1949
	Benito Santiago	San Diego Padres	34	1987
19	George Davis	New York Giants	33	1893
	Hal Chase	New York Highlanders	33	1907
	Rogers Hornsby	St. Louis Cardinals	33	1922
	Heinie Manush	Washington Senators	33	1933
	Dan Uggla	Atlanta Braves	33	2011
24	Harry Heilmann	Detroit Tigers	32	1922–23
	Hal Morris	Cincinnati Reds	32	1996–97
26	Jimmy Wolf	Louisville Colonels	31	1885–86
	Ed Delahanty	Philadelphia Phillies	31	1899
	Napoleon Lajoie	Cleveland Naps	31	1906
	Sam Rice	Washington Senators	31	1924
	Vada Pinson	Cincinnati Reds	31	1965–66
	Willie Davis	Los Angeles Dodgers	31	1969
	Rico Carty	Atlanta Braves	31	1970
	Ron LeFlore	Detroit Tigers	31 (30)	1975–76
	Ken Landreaux	Minnesota Twins	31	1980
	Vladimir Guerrero	Montreal Expos	31	1999
36	Cal McVey	Chicago White Stockings	30	1876
	Dusty Miller	Cincinnati Reds	30	1895–96
	Elmer Smith	Cincinnati Reds	30	1898
	Tris Speaker	Boston Red Sox	30	1912
	Charlie Grimm	Chicago Cubs	30	1922–23
	Lance Richbourg	Boston Braves	30	1927–28
	Sam Rice	Washington Senators	30	1929–30
	Goose Goslin	Detroit Tigers	30	1934
	Stan Musial	St. Louis Cardinals	30	1950
	George Brett	Kansas City Royals	30	1980
	Jerome Walton	Chicago Cubs	30	1989
	Sandy Alomar, Jr.	Cleveland Indians	30	1997
	Nomar Garciaparra	Boston Red Sox	30	1997
	Eric Davis	Baltimore Orioles	30	1998
	Luis Gonzalez	Arizona Diamondbacks	30	1999
	Albert Pujols	St. Louis Cardinals	30	2003
	Willy Taveras	Houston Astros	30	2006
	Moisés Alou	New York Mets	30	2007
	Ryan Zimmerman	Washington Nationals	30	2009
	Andre Ethier	Los Angeles Dodgers	30	2011

Keeler's streak started in his final game of the 1896 season, and continued through the first 44 games of the 1897 season. Rollins ended the 2005 season with a 36-game streak and extended it through the first two games of the 2006 season. Sisler had a hit in the last game of 1924 and the first 34 games of 1925. Major League Baseball recognizes two hitting streak records: Longest hitting streak in one season, and longest hitting streak over multiple seasons (e.g. Rollins 2005-2006). Keeler's, Sisler's, and Rollins' streaks are listed as 44, 34, and 36 games when discussing single-season streaks, and 45, 35, and 38 games when discussing multiple-season streaks.

This list omits Denny Lyons of the 1887 American Association Philadelphia Athletics, who had a 52-game hitting streak. In 1887, the major leagues adopted a new rule which counted walks as hits, a rule which was dropped after that season. Lyons hit in 52 consecutive games that season, but his streak included two games (#22 and #44) in which his only "hits" were walks. In 1968, MLB ruled that walks in 1887 would not be counted as hits, so Lyons' streak was no longer recognized, though it still appears on some lists. In 2000 Major League Baseball reversed its 1968 decision, ruling that the statistics which were recognized in each year's official records should stand, even in cases where they were later proven incorrect. Paradoxically, the ruling affects only hit totals for the year; the batting champion for the year is not recognized as the all-time leader despite having the highest single-season average under the ruling, and Lyons' hitting streak is not recognized.

Ty Cobb, Sam Rice, and George Sisler are the only players with multiple streaks of 30 games or longer.

There have been 129 single-season streaks of 25 games or more. The lowest batting average ever recorded during a hitting streak of 25 games or more was .304 by Bruce Campbell in 1938. The highest was .486 during Chuck Klein's streak in 1930. Joe DiMaggio hit .408 during his record-holding 56 game streak.