September 5, 2022: Xander Bogaerts records ninth straight multihit game for Red Sox

Getting a base hit in 56 consecutive games is such an impressive feat that no one has matched it since Joe DiMaggio did it in 1941. The closest anyone has come in the years since was Pete Rose, with 44 in 1978. Since 1900, only one other player has topped 40 – George Sisler, with 41 in 1922. Ty Cobb had a 40-game hitting streak in 1911.  

Arguably, just as impressive was the streak put together by Ted Williams in 1949, in which he reached base safely – through a hit or a base on balls – in 84 consecutive games.

Then there are the streaks in which a batter had two or more hits in consecutive games. As of 2025, the record since 1900 is 13 games, set by Rogers Hornsby of the St. Louis Cardinals from July 5 through July 18, 1923. The Chicago Cubs’ Billy Herman had a 12-game multihit streak from September 16, 1935, through April 14, 1936. Five players have had 11-game streaks: Lourdes Gurriel Jr. (2018), Tony Perez (1973), Paul Waner (1927), Sam Rice (1925), and Shoeless Joe Jackson (1912). Gurriel, Rice, and Jackson share the American League record. Eight players have 10-game streaks – one of them Joe Jackson, in 1911.

Late in the 2022 season, Boston Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts put together a nine-game multihit streak, from August 28 through September 5. He is one of 40 batters who have assembled nine-game streaks, and the most recent through the 2024 season.  

Bogaerts is one of four Red Sox batters with a nine-game multihit streak. Roy Johnson was the first (June 17-23, 1934 – a stretch that included three doubleheaders). The other two were Jim Rice (May 1-9, 1978) and Kevin Youkilis (May 20-29, 2007).

Bogaerts was in his 10th season with Boston in 2022, having played in 18 games at the end of the 2013 season and then nine years that followed. He was a four-time All-Star and had World Series championship rings from 2013 and 2018. His .320 batting average had led the team in 2015, one of four seasons in which he hit .300 or better through 2022.

Before Bogaerts’ multihit-game streak began, he was batting .299. He’d been at .301 through August 26 but then was hitless in three at-bats a day later. He went 3-for-4, all singles, against the Tampa Bay Rays at Fenway Park on August 28. That’s the day his streak began.

The Red Sox went to Target Field to play the Minnesota Twins on the last three days of August. Bogaerts was 2-for-4, 2-for-4, and 2-for 4. On August 31 his third-inning grand slam against Joe Ryan produced four of his five RBIs that evening, in a 6-5 Red Sox win.

The team returned to Boston to host the Texas Rangers for four games – and won all four. Bogaerts was 2-for-4, 2-for-4, 2-for 4, and 3-for-4. In each of the last three games, one of his hits was a double. His first-inning ground-rule double on September 4 knocked in the first run. He then scored on Trevor Story’s three-run homer. The Red Sox won the game, 5-2.

Boston then went to Florida to play the Rays. At this point, Bogaerts had eight consecutive multihit games. The media were aware of it. A photo caption in the Sunday Boston Globe noted that through September 3, he had multiple hits for the seventh straight game.1 It was noted, but very little attention paid to it, a bit surprising in that there was already considerable discussion about Bogaerts’ possible free agency after the season and how well he was doing in the race for the batting title.   

The Monday, September 5, game was a 4:10 P.M. start, on Labor Day at Tropicana Field. Tampa Bay was having a good season and was second in the AL East Division. The Rays were 10 or more games behind almost all season through August 15, in part because the New York Yankees had a spectacular first half of the season. (New York was 56-21 through the first three months of the season, and 64-28 to the All-Star break.) The Rays had narrowed the gap, whittling away at New York’s lead since that time, and were now just five games behind. The Yankees played only .500 ball after the break (35-35).

Toronto was one game behind the Rays. The Red Sox were in last place, 13½ games behind. It was as close to first place as they had been since July 5.

The starting pitchers were right-hander Luis Patiño for the Rays and Michael Wacha for the Red Sox. Patiño was pitching in his 35th major-league game, accumulated over parts of three seasons. He was 1-1 in 2022, with a 3.95 ERA. Wacha started with St. Louis in 2013. He had a record of 63-48 before coming to Boston for the 2022 campaign. He came into this game with a record of 10-1 and a 2.56 ERA.

The Red Sox scored first. Their second batter of the game, right fielder Alex Verdugo, hit a solo home run into the first row of the seats in right field. It was Verdugo’s ninth homer of the season. Bogaerts was up next and he lined a single between short and third. It put him in the lead for the AL batting title, edging ahead of the Twins’ Luis Arráez, who had been 0-for-4 earlier in the day. The next two batters made outs.  

The Rays promptly tied it on a bloop single by Manuel Margot, leading off, and one-out bloop singles by David Peralta and Harold Ramírez. Not one of them was hard-hit: “none hit harder than 80 mph,” reported the Tampa Bay Times.2

Patiño retired the Red Sox in order in the second. Yu Chang doubled for Tampa Bay in the bottom of the inning but did not score.3 Bogaerts came up to bat in the third, after two Red Sox had drawn walks, but struck out swinging. Rafael Devers singled in one of the baserunners and Story doubled, the ball hopping up and off the left-field fence, driving in the other. It was 3-1, Boston. Wacha retired the Rays in order in their half of the third.

Neither team scored in the fourth.

Bogaerts came to bat again in the top of the fifth and grounded out, short to first. The Rays got back one of the runs, making it 3-2, when Randy Arozarena doubled in Jose Siri, a ball that looked as if it could have been hauled in by left fielder Franchy Cordero, but Cordero caught his foot on the wall, fell, and had to be removed from the game with an injured ankle.4

The score remained 3-2, Red Sox, through six. Wacha recorded his 1,000th major-league strikeout closing out the bottom of the sixth inning.

Bogaerts came up to bat again in the top of the seventh, facing the third Tampa Bay pitcher, Calvin Faucher. Both Kevin Youkilis and Jim Rice were on the Red Sox broadcast, and all were aware that Bogaerts might tie the team record for consecutive multihit games. That he did. He shot a single into right field, giving him his ninth consecutive multihit game. Devers walked on four pitches, loading the bases, but Story struck out swinging for the third out.  

In the bottom of the seventh, the Rays scored twice and took the lead, 4-3. Jeurys Familia was pitching for the Red Sox. He hit Vidal Brújan, who then stole second. Brújan took third on a groundout and scored easily on Margot’s double to right. Zack Kelly replaced Familia. He got an out, but Peralta hit a ball right over first base, doubling in Margot and giving Tampa Bay a lead they didn’t squander.

There was no more scoring by either side. Bogaerts made the last out; with Verdugo on second, he struck out looking. The Red Sox had left nine on base, five of them in scoring position. “We had traffic,” manager Alex Cora said afterward. “But we didn’t put them away. … We were unable to cash in. They did.”5 It was Tampa Bay’s 12th win in their last 15 games.

The next day Bogaerts hit a long fly ball, struck out, and grounded into a double play. He went hitless and the streak was over. His next game was on September 9, and he went 3-for-5.

Luis Arráez did ultimately win the league batting title, batting .316 to Bogaerts’ .307. The Yankees’ Aaron Judge was second with a .311 batting average.

The Rays finished in third place, 13 games behind the Yankees. The Red Sox remained in last, finishing 21 games behind. The Yankees advanced to the AL Championship Series but were swept there by the eventual World Series champion Houston Astros.

After the 2022 season Bogaerts opted out of the final three years of his Red Sox contract and became a free agent. He signed an 11-year, $280 million contract with the San Diego Padres in December 2022.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Victoria Monte and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Xander Bogaerts, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and highlights of the game on YouTube.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/TBA/TBA202209050.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2022/B09050TBA2022.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uc6uWouCBs

Thanks to Carl Riechers, who prepared a listing of 158 multihit streaks of eight or more consecutive games.

Notes

1 Boston Globe, September 4, 2022: C2. A sports reporter mentioned it as well. See Julian McWilliams, “First Win in Majors for Sox Rookie Bello,” Boston Globe, September 4, 2022: C2.

2 Mark Topkin, “Ray Can Smile Through Pain,” Tampa Bay Times, September 6, 2022: 1C, 5C.

3 Chang appeared in one more game with the Rays. He was then claimed by the Red Sox on waivers on September 17 and scored a run against Tampa Bay in the final game of the regular season on October 5.

4 The injury ended Cordero’s season.

5 Julian Mc Williams, “Sox Miss Chances, Fall Again,” Boston Globe, September 6, 2022: C1, C5.