This week, here on FanGraphs, we’re going to be looking at some of our favorite events from the 2008 season. While this one is a series of events, in total, it’s one of the more amazing things I’ve ever seen on a baseball field, and it didn’t get the recognition it deserved. Check out this stretch from Lance Berkman’s Play Log:
If you got tired of counting up the hits, that’s 18 hits in 23 at-bats. From May 4th to May 10th, the Astros played six games, and Berkman stepped to the plate 29 times, reaching base safely in 24 of them. His line for that stretch: .783/.827/1.434, for a robust 2.262 OPS. His WPA over those 29 plate appearances: 1.49. Even taking leverage out of the equation, his WPA/LI was 0.97 – he was worth nearly a win more than an average hitter in six games.
The stretch included eight straight at-bats with a hit, as well as a totally separate stretch where he reached base in six straight plate appearances. At no point during those six games did he make outs in consecutive trips to the plate.
He terrorized three teams and 16 pitchers (including Ben Sheets, Derek Lowe, and Chad Billingsley), swinging the hottest bat anyone had at any point in 2008. For six glorious days, Lance Berkman was the best hitter anyone has ever seen. This will go down as one of the best weeks anyone has ever had in the history of the game, and we were all around to see it.
You Aren't a FanGraphs Member
It looks like you aren't yet a FanGraphs Member (or aren't logged in). We aren't mad, just disappointed.
We get it. You want to read this article. But before we let you get back to it, we'd like to point out a few of the good reasons why you should become a Member.
1. Ad Free viewing! We won't bug you with this ad, or any other.
2. Unlimited articles! Non-Members only get to read 10 free articles a month. Members never get cut off.
3. Dark mode and Classic mode!
4. Custom player page dashboards! Choose the player cards you want, in the order you want them.
5. One-click data exports! Export our projections and leaderboards for your personal projects.
6. Remove the photos on the home page! (Honestly, this doesn't sound so great to us, but some people wanted it, and we like to give our Members what they want.)
7. Even more Steamer projections! We have handedness, percentile, and context neutral projections available for Members only.
8. Get FanGraphs Walk-Off, a customized year end review! Find out exactly how you used FanGraphs this year, and how that compares to other Members. Don't be a victim of FOMO.
9. A weekly mailbag column, exclusively for Members.
10. Help support FanGraphs and our entire staff! Our Members provide us with critical resources to improve the site and deliver new features!
We hope you'll consider a Membership today, for yourself or as a gift! And we realize this has been an awfully long sales pitch, so we've also removed all the other ads in this article. We didn't want to overdo it.
That’s incredible.