Arraez raises average to .401 in Marlins' victory
MIAMI — Luis Arraez had two hits to raise his major-league-leading batting average to .401 and help the Miami Marlins beat the Kansas City Royals 6-1 on Tuesday night.
Second in the NL East, the Marlins have won five straight to improve to 34-28 — the first time they’ve been six games over .500 since August 2016. Arraez also now has 12 hits in his past four games, tying the most in a four-game span in Marlins history. It was also done by Cody Ross in 2008 and Preston Wilson in 2001.
“It is an honor when I see that number on the scoreboard but as I’ve said before, it is not impossible,” Arraez said in Spanish. “Things are going well for me and we are also winning, which is what is most important.”
After Arraez flew out to left in his first two at-bats, he hit consecutive singles to finish 2-for-4 with an RBI.
Arraez is the first player batting .400 or better 62 team games into a season since Atlanta’s Chipper Jones in 2008, who was batting .421, according to ESPN Stats & Information. This is also the third-deepest into a season, by team games, that a qualified hitter has been batting .400 or better since 2000. Boston’s Nomar Garciaparra (91 games in 2000) and Jones (73 games) were the others.
Miami broke open a scoreless game with a five-run fifth against Zack Greinke (1-6).
The former Cy Young Award winner kept Miami hitless until Sánchez’s leadoff blast. Jesus Sánchez drove the first pitch from Greinke over the wall in left for his fifth homer.
Arraez’s one-out single with the bases loaded made it 2-0 and ended Greinke’s outing.
Marlins starter Jesús Luzardo threw seven innings of one-run ball. Luzardo (5-4) scattered two hits and struck out eight, matching his longest outing of the season.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
