Twins DH Jose Miranda sets club record with hits in 10 consecutive plate appearances

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minnesota Twins designated hitter Jose Miranda set a team record Friday night with hits in 10 consecutive plate appearances.

Miranda eclipsed the Twins record of nine hits in a row set by Tony Oliva in 1967 and matched by Mickey Hatcher in 1985 and Todd Walker in 1998. Oliva still spends time with Twins players throughout the season, lending extra meaning to the accomplishment according to Miranda.

“I talk to him a lot. It means a lot,” Miranda said. “You know, he’s a Hall of Famer, so you break a Hall of Famer’s record, it’s something pretty cool, I think.”

The major league record for consecutive hits is 12, by Detroit’s Walt Dropo (1952), Boston’s Pinky Higgins (1938) and the Chicago Cubs’ Johnny Kling (1902).

The 26-year-old Miranda entered the game Friday night against the Houston Astros — a 13-12 loss — with hits in six straight trips to the plate and had hits in each of his four times up before he was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the ninth inning.

“I’ll come to the field tomorrow, do my stuff in the cage, get ready for the game, get ready for the pitcher I’m facing tomorrow,” Miranda said. “Then … you take it pitch by pitch and try to have a good at-bat.”

Miranda finished 4 for 4 with three RBIs and two runs. He was batting .296 entering Wednesday night’s game when the streak began and has raised his average to .324.

He singled in the second inning and hit a 414-foot homer to left field in the third. Miranda tied the Twins’ record of nine straight hits with a two-run double in the fifth. He had his record-setting 10th straight hit — a single to right field — in the seventh.

With the Twins trailing 13-5 in the ninth, Austin Martin pinch-hit for Miranda — and singled.

Twins manager Rocco Baldelli was one of many in the clubhouse appreciative of Miranda’s feat.

“It’s hard to do that in Little League and playing video games and stuff. He’s doing it on a major league field right now,” Baldelli said. “I don’t want to talk too much about it anymore and I’m not talking to him about it. I’m just going to keep patting him on the back and letting him work.”

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