‘바카라 A distant 4-for-4!’
Luis Araúez (26, Miami Marlins) is hitting for the cycle again. After turning things around with a three-hit game on the 13th, he went 1-for-8 over the next two days and forgot about his bat again.
Araúez started at second base against the Houston Astros on the 15th, batting second. He went 0-for-4, dropping his season average to .363. After going 1-for-4 the day before, he was unable to generate a hit on the day, dropping his average to the low 3.6s.
He showed glimpses of a resurgence on Aug. 13 when he had his first three-hit game in a long time against the New York Yankees. He went 3-for-5, raising his season average to .367. It looked like he was breaking out of a severe hitting slump that had seen him go 3-for-21 in his previous six games. But then he slumped again, going 1-for-8 in his next two games.
Through 15 games, he is batting just .241 in August. He has 14 hits in 58 at-bats. His last seven games have been even worse. He’s 6-for-29 for .207. His last 15 games are .274 and his last 30 games are .298. That’s not good enough to challenge for a .400 batting average for the season.
Araúez went 1-for-4 against the Philadelphia Phillies on June 25, raising his season average to .399. Since then, he’s dipped below .400 and hasn’t recaptured the .400 plateau. In July, he bounced back and forth between 3.7 and 3.8, and in August, as his bat got colder, he dropped to 3.6, and now he’s in danger of breaking 3.6.
A combination of opposing pitchers and deteriorating health made it difficult to manage his batting average. A .400 batting average in a season for the first time in 82 years has become virtually impossible. While Miami still has 41 games to go, it’s unlikely they’ll come close again unless they have more than one hit in every game.
Still, it’s an impressive batting average. He’s the only player on the roster to hit over .340 this season. Ronald Acuña Jr. is second in the majors with a .338 average. He’s just .025 behind Araúez. Only 10 players, including Araes, are hitting over .300 on 15 days.