Orioles' Chris Davis can't buy a hit, and he's about to set a MLB record

Jordan Heck

Orioles' Chris Davis can't buy a hit, and he's about to set a MLB record image

Chris Davis is now riding an 0-for-44 streak. No, that's not some weird, random stat sample. That big fat zero represents the Orioles slugger's hits so far in the 2019 season, as in zero hits in 44 at-bats.

If you're wondering whether that's an MLB record, it's not. But it's extremely close. Eugenio Velez owns the record (by a position player) with an 0-for-46 streak, and surprisingly three people (Bill Bergen, Dave Campbell, Craig Counsell) share an 0-for-45 streak.

So while Davis is not alone in his misery, it is still pretty amazing to see a professional baseball player not be able to record a hit in so many at-bats. 

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Let's take a look at some of Davis' contextual numbers for perspective:

Remarkable.

Even worse, he has 27 strikeouts during this span. So 61% of his previous 44 at-bats have resulted in strikeouts. 

Davis hasn't always been like this, of course. At one point in his career, he hit 159 home runs in a four-year span. He was so good, Baltimore gave him a seven-year contract worth $161 million in 2016. It was the richest contract in Orioles history. Since that time, he's gone 302-for-1,515 (.199) with 619 strikeouts. In 2018, he was the lowest qualified MLB position player in batting average (.168), base percentage (.243) and slugging percentage (.296).

Out of the worst 28 seasons with the most strikeouts by a batter, Davis already owns five of them (including the third-worst all time). If his numbers are averaged out over a 162-game season, he'd be on pace for a new MLB single-season strikeout record in 2019.

The Orioles open a three-game slate against the Athletics on Monday, so we'll either see Davis make MLB history or just barely avoid it.

Jordan Heck

Jordan Heck Photo

Jordan Heck is a Social Media Producer at Sporting News. Before working here, he was a Digital Content Producer at The Indianapolis Star. He graduated with a degree from Indiana University.