Luis Arráez chases .400, sets Marlins record with sixth 4-hit game

Luis Arráez is in pursuit of the gold-standard of hitting. Forget the home run record.

As we saw last season when Aaron Judge was chasing the Yankees record, there are simply too many asterisks attached. Did PEDs give Sosa, McGwire, and Bonds an unfair advantage? Was Roger Maris the true record holder? Did the expanded schedule unfairly boost Maris’ numbers? Was Babe Ruth’s mark the true one?

It is too conflicting. Too controversial. But there is another mark that is pure; where there is no conflict. The true mark of hitting excellence. The .400 season.

Nobody since Ted Williams in 1941 has accomplished it. And it seems likely that nobody ever will, particularly when you look at the way scouts, teams, and statisticians favor low-average, high output hitters, going for home runs at every at bat.

And then, out of nowhere, comes Luis Arráez. He is a true hitter of the old cloth, a bat-to-ball contact hitter who makes things happen at the plate.

The Venezuelan infielder is having a steaming season, currently hitting .380 on the year. And that is a magic number, and he is intent on staying in that area. It isn’t that being below will kill his pursuit of the .400 season, nor will being above .380 guarantee it, but it keeps him within striking distance as we head into the back end of the season.

Every time he gets himself into danger of slipping, he pulls out a cracker of a game to keep himself in the chase. On Sunday, he came into the Marlins’ third game of the series against Baltimore sitting at .380 and he did something remarkable. He went 4 for 5, setting a Marlins team record with his sixth game this season with at least four hits.

That six is also tops for MLB this season and of his countrymen, only Miguel Cabrera and Jose Altuve have more. Miggy hit four or more in seven games back in 2013 and Altuve had eight games above the mark in 2016.

Orioles manager Brandon Hyde could only stand in amazement. “What a hitter! He’s a really, really good player. We have our hands full with him, and we need to pitch him extremely well.”

And it isn’t about power, either, as Hyde points out. “The bat-to-ball skills, the barrel control. He’s not going to light the charts up from an exit velocity and all those things people look at. But he can flat-out hit, and he hits the ball everywhere.”

Old school. Cut from the cloth of greatness.

Arráez has 36 multi-hit games this season, second only to Atlanta’s Ronald Acuña Jr. at 38. Arraez leads the majors with 130 hits, five more than anyone else. His .437 OBP leads the Majors by 17 points. If he keeps this up, it will be difficult to keep his name out of the conversation come time for handing out the MVP award.