Seiya Suzuki Shows No Signs of Slowing Down Despite Snapped Hitting Streak

Seiya Suzuki’s nine-game hitting streak to start his MLB career has finally come to an end. On Tuesday night, the Chicago Cubs’ outfielder officially went 0-1 in the box score.

Aside from the Cubs falling by a score of 6-5, Suzuki’s snapped streak is the worst thing from that game against the Tampa Bay Rays. However, there is a silver lining, at least. After a three-walk performance, Suzuki’s on-base streak reached 11 games.

During Monday night’s game against the Rays, Suzuki extended his streak to nine games, tying Akinori Iwamura for the longest hitting streak by a Japanese-born player to start their MLB career.

Suzuki’s 11-game on-base streak to start his career is tied with Tony Taylor for the second-longest in Chicago Cubs history, set in 1958. If he gets on base in tonight’s game, he will tie Art Williams for the franchise record on-base streak of 12 games set in 1902.

Seiya Suzuki now leads the majors with a .581 OBP. Entering play Wednesday, the next closest is Owen Miller with a .545 OBP. Suzuki is third in batting average, hitting .414, and he’s the most valuable player in terms of fWAR at 1.1.

What Suzuki has accomplished in such a short time is truly remarkable. Every at-bat is must-see TV. The scary part is he’s showing no signs of slowing down, ranking first in walk rate (27.9%), chase rate (8.2%), and in the 99th percentile in barrel rate (28.6%) and xwOBA (.495).