Colorado Rockies: Looking at Raimel Tapia’s odd hitting streak

The game of baseball has done it again. The gift that keeps on giving that is Major League statistics has once again delivers with an oddity in the Colorado Rockies’ stat line.

This morning, as I was doing my daily deep dive into the Colorado Rockies‘ stats (it wakes me up better than a hot cup of coffee), I discovered another one of those rare anomalies that show up from time to time because baseball is a game full of numbers. Much like the Charlie Blackmon stat that I stumbled upon earlier this month, this stat has no explanation for why it exists. This time, it involves Raimel Tapia and his hitting streak.

Wednesday night against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Tapia extended his career high hitting streak to a modest eight games. During this streak, instead of Tapia’s batting average increasing, it has actually dropped … by quite a few points. When the streak started, Tapia’s average was sitting at .292. After going 8-for-38 (.211) during the eight-game streak, his average has now dropped 15 points to .277.

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This may happen to be one of the most unimpressive eight-game hitting streaks. Despite his dramatic extra inning walk-off single on Memorial Day and his six runs scored, Tapia does not have a multi-hit game, has struck out nine times, has only two extra-base hits and three RBI.

To extend his odd stats out even further, Tapia’s average has seen an even more dramatic drop. After going 3-for-4 with a home run on May 12 against the Padres, Tapia’s batting average was up to a season high .313. Since that day, he has a hit in 12 of his last 14 games. However, his average has dropped a staggering 36 points.

Even though his average has dropped, Raimel Tapia has filled in nicely with more everyday playing time since the Blackmon injury. He has contributed in the clutch as the Rockies have finally got their record back to .500.