Pujols ties Hernandez’s on-base streak, eyes Musial
Keith Hernandez is in the news again, so naturally we couldn’t bypass the opportunity to comment. The offensive hero of the Cardinals’ 3-1 win over the Reds Thursday night was Albert Pujols*, who in reaching base twice, tied Mex for consecutive games reaching base at least twice. Both legendary Cardinal first basemen have streaks of 15 games; only Stan Musial has more (since at least 1954):
| Player | Start | End | Gm | AB | H | BB | BA | OBP | SLG |
| Stan Musial | 4/17/1958 | 5/7/1958 | 16 | 63 | 35 | 11 | .556 | .613 | .905 |
| Albert Pujols | 5/20/2009 | 6/4/2009 | 15 | 44 | 19 | 19 | .432 | .594 | .841 |
| Keith Hernandez | 9/12/1980 | 9/26/1980 | 15 | 53 | 21 | 17 | .396 | .543 | .585 |
| Jim Edmonds | 4/27/2000 | 5/10/2000 | 13 | 41 | 20 | 14 | .488 | .607 | .854 |
| Ray Lankford | 4/19/1994 | 5/4/1994 | 12 | 43 | 16 | 13 | .372 | .534 | .837 |
| Lou Brock | 9/1/1967 | 9/12/1967 | 12 | 49 | 19 | 9 | .388 | .483 | .735 |
Interestingly, the major-league record is shared by a pair of cheaters, Pete Rose and Barry Bonds, so perhaps it’s a dubious honor for Pujols to attain to:
| Player | Start | End | Gm |
| Barry Bonds | 6/20/2004 | 7/15/2004 | 20 |
| Pete Rose | 9/3/1979 | 9/22/1979 | 20 |
| Jason Giambi | 9/20/2000 | 4/8/2001 | 18 |
| Steve Finley | 6/20/1996 | 7/11/1996 | 18 |
| Barry Bonds | 9/7/2002 | 9/24/2002 | 17 |
| Tony Phillips | 6/28/1993 | 7/17/1993 | 17 |
| Duane Kuiper | 7/15/1976 | 8/2/1976 | 17 |
| Ted Williams | 7/25/1957 | 8/11/1957 | 17 |
| Johnny Damon | 7/27/2008 | 8/12/2008 | 16 |
| Barry Bonds | 5/13/2004 | 6/6/2004 | 16 |
| Jason Giambi | 6/14/2003 | 6/30/2003 | 16 |
| Mark Grace | 7/31/1998 | 8/20/1998 | 16 |
| Deion Sanders | 4/9/1994 | 4/26/1994 | 16 |
| George Brett | 7/8/1990 | 7/26/1990 | 16 |
| Wade Boggs | 5/13/1988 | 5/30/1988 | 16 |
| Alan Trammell | 5/27/1987 | 6/14/1987 | 16 |
| Eddie Mathews | 9/29/1962 | 4/22/1963 | 16 |
| Stan Musial | 4/17/1958 | 5/7/1958 | 16 |
| Ted Williams | 5/17/1957 | 6/2/1957 | 16 |
The Cardinals face the Rockies’ Jorge de la Rosa tonight, against whom Pujols has a .417 OBP in 12 plate appearances. We like his chances, even if it means surpassing one Cardinal legend and tying another.
*Who has claimed on multiple occasions that he hasn’t used PEDs but has never volunteered to be tested to attempt to prove it.
June 5th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
Of course, Hernandez was coked to the gills, so he needs an asterisk, too.
June 6th, 2009 at 11:31 am
If you can point me to some evidence that cocaine provides some significant baseball-related performance benefits, I would be interested.
As an aside, players who used coke in the ’80s didn’t do so for the express purpose of gaining an advantage on the field, unlike those in our current era vis-a-vis PEDs.
June 6th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
Let off Rose, man. Pujols should be so lucky.
Rose may have cheated the rules, but he never cheated the game: there is no evidence that he ever bet against the Reds.
I’ll even point you to some evidence, unlike our other commenter. http://www.dowdreport.com/