Pinch-Hitting Kills Streaks

Over the past week, two of baseball's best streaks have come to unceremonious endings thanks to the good ol' pinch-hitting appearance.

Earlier this week, Elvis Andrus saw his season-high 32-game streak of reaching base safely end on a pinch-hit groundout to end Tuesday's loss to the Kansas City Royals. On Thursday, Josh Hamilton went 0-for-2 after appearing as a pinch-hitter in the eighth inning and watched his 16-game hit streak, the longest active in baseball, come to an end.

Now make no mistake, neither player is worried about that streak when the Rangers are trailing and Ron Washington is calling upon their hot bats to get the Rangers back into a game, but the fact that those streaks ended in games where they had very limited at-bats still has to sting a little.

"I knew I was getting on base, but I wasn't thinking about it," Andrus said after Tuesday's game. "I try to keep playing the same way. But don't get me wrong. Any streak I have, I'm proud of."

Since the failed pinch-hit appearance, Andrus has now reached base safely in the last two games, going 2-for-4 on Wednesday and 0-for-4 with a walk on Thursday.

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