Mariners’ Kyle Lewis just keeps hitting, extends multi-hit streak to 6 games
Just how good has Kyle Lewis been for the Mariners in the 2020 season? In Friday night’s 5-3 win over the A’s, in the team’s home opener — an unusual one, with no fans in the stands, and players, umpires and coaches wearing masks as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to roll on — Lewis recorded another pair of hits, bringing his average to .455 on the season.
He drove in a run with a single in the fifth inning, and scored from first on a Kyle Seager double down the right field line in the fourth.
“I’m going until they stop me,” Lewis said of scoring from first on the play. “When I’m coming around second, I’m thinking of scoring, so just picking up (third base coach) Manny (Acta) to see if that’s what he’s thinking, too. So as soon as I saw him waving his fingers, I just try to turn it on.”
The effort extended Lewis’ multi-hit streak to six straight games and pushed his hitting streak to eight games. Lewis’ batting average is currently tied for first in the American League and tied for third in Major League Baseball. His 15 hits lead all of MLB.
Lewis said he wasn’t even aware of a streak until he was asked about it during a postgame video call with reporters.
“I don’t even think about streaks, I just try to think about games and at bats,” he said. “Streaks happen as a result. I don’t know how long that lasts, I don’t even have a goal of how long that lasts. I didn’t even know that existed until just now. It’s just a thing of trying to get into the box and make good things happen. I try to get pitches I can hit.”
Mariners manager Scott Servais said “consistency is an understatement” while assessing Lewis’ start to the season.
The tandem of Lewis batting third and Kyle Seager batting cleanup has been particularly effective, with both players off to strong starts to the season. Seager said he’s been impressed with Lewis this season.
“You want to talk about a hot start, that’s made my life real easy. It’s nice when there’s a guy on third every at-bat, I hit a pop up and I get a high-five for it,” Seager said, joking.
Seager noted that Lewis’ maturity and patience at the plate is uncommon for most rookies he’s played with during his career.
“It’s been really clean, he’s not trying to do too much, he’s taking what the pitchers are giving him,” Seager said. “The ball comes off his bat extremely well. He’s a big, athletic guy. He’s very mature, too. That’s something that’s hard for guys breaking in and younger guys specifically. When you aren’t feeling good, you try to do too much. When he takes a swing where he felt like he tried to do too much, you see him self-correct pretty quickly, which is really impressive.”
Servais said the Mariners will look to ride the production from the middle of the lineup to wins as long as possible.
“With (Lewis and) Seager, it’s a great combination in the middle of our lineup,” Servais said. You don’t really care who’s out there — righty, lefty — they’re seeing the ball well, they’re making good swings on it and making good decisions. We’re going really good in the middle of the lineup right now. Hopefully we can ride it for a really long time.”
This story was originally published July 31, 2020 at 10:36 PM.
