The 2019 season is not expected to go well for the Baltimore Orioles, although they’ve been somewhat surprisingly competitive in the first two weeks of the season at 4-5.
While the team as a whole has somewhat overachieved early, first baseman Chris Davis has unfortunately picked up where he left off last season. Davis finished last year with the worst batting average in baseball among qualified hitters at .168, had a -3.1 WAR, also the worst in baseball, and ended the season hitless in his final 21 official at-bats.
To start this year, Davis was 0-for-23 on official at-bats, meaning he entered Sunday night’s game against the A’s three at-bats shy of setting a new MLB record for futility at the plate by a position player, as Eugenio Velez owned the record having gone 0-for-46 to end the 2011 season. Davis went 0-for-2 to start the game and then lined out to deep left field in his third at-bat to put his name in the record books for all the wrong reasons.
Chris Davis' 0-for-47 hitless streak is now the longest drought among position players in MLB history. pic.twitter.com/QGSjeeMCLT
— MLB Stats (@MLBStats) April 9, 2019
Davis has never been one to hit for a great average, batting below the Mendoza line on three occasions, but has twice led all of MLB in home runs. Recently, though, the power numbers have dropped and he no longer makes up for his inability to get on base with dingers. This recent run of hitless at-bats is truly a remarkable, even if unfortunate, feat and illustrates the rather unbelievable drop-off Davis has seen at the plate in recent years.
