(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
   Xander Bogaerts reaches milestone with 1400th Major League-basehit
Nederlands
 BOSTON, Massachusetts (USA) -
Xander Bogaerts has reached a historic milestone in his Major League-career.
On Sunday (September 18), the short stop was 2-for-4 for Boston Red Sox in a 13-3 win against Kansas City Royals at Fenway Park in Boston.
The first of his two hits not only was a runscoring double in the bottom of the first inning, it also was the 1400th basehit in his Major League-career that began in 2013.
...Xander Bogaerts playing for the Netherlands Team...
...1,400 Major League-basehits...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
By reaching the milestone, Bogaerts became one of only four players in the rich and long history of Boston Red Sox who collected that many basehits before turning 30 years old.
The others are Bobby Doerr, Jim Rice and Carl Yastrzemski, who are all in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Bogaerts will turn 30 on October 1.
This season, the Aruba-born Bogaerts again is the leader of the Boston-team.
He also is in contention to become the Best Hitter in the American League this season.
Bogaerts, who was on top for awhile, is hitting .316 after Sunday's game, trailing Luis Arraez (Minnesota Twins), who hits .317 at the moment.
Another player who has a good chance to become the leading hitter is Aaron Judge (New York Yankees).
The outfielder was 4-for-5 on Sunday in a 12-8 win against Milwaukee Brewers and now also hit .316.
With that, Judge also has a chance to win the Triple Crown.
Amongst Judge's four basehits were his league-leading 58th and 59th homerun of the season and he also leads the American League with 127 runs batted in.
New York plays is next game coming Tuesday at home against Pittsburgh Pirates in what is the first of six home-games, two against Pittsburgh, four against Boston.
Judge now is only one homerun away from hitting his 60th to become only the third American League-player to have hit that many homeruns in one season.
Legendary Babe Ruth was the first to hit 60 in 1927, then Roger Maris broke that record in 1961 by hitting 61.
Both Ruth and Maris also played for New York Yankees.
With that, Judge not only can set a new Yankee-record, but also a new American League-record.
Back to Bogaerts, who has sixteen games left with Boston to finish in first place in the Batting Average-category.
In his last 15 games, the infielder hits .407 (24-for-59) with three homeruns and 14 runs batted in.
In his last 30 games, Bogaerts hits .351.
In the month of September, he hit .392 through Sunday with 20 basehits.
Xander Bogaerts has the second highest total of basehits of players with a Dutch passport.
Curaçao-born Andruw Jones has the most with 1,933.
Following Bogaerts with 300 or more Major League-hits are Andrelton Simmons (1,169), Jonathan Schoop (1,058), Didi Gregorius (999), Ozzie Albies (674), Jurickson Profar (630), Randall Simon (455) and Roger Bernadina (312).
Schoop (Detroit Tigers), Albies (Atlanta Braves) and Profar (San Diego Padres) all are active in the Major League.
Schoop hit his 1,000th basehit earlier this season.
Gregorius was released by Philadelphia Phillies on August 4, Simmons was released by Chicago Cubs three days later.
Jones and Simon have retired.
After his Major League-career, Bernadina played in Asia, then returned to the Netherlands.
There, he played in the Dutch big league first for Quick Amersfoort in 2020 and since 2021 for Curaçao Neptunus.
(September 18)
|
