Seattle Mariners: 3 moments that sparked Kyle Lewis’ ROY

Former Mercer University standout Kyle Lewis’ six straight multi-hit games

After his home run heard around the world, Lewis would continue campaigning for AL ROY with six straight multi-hit games. Starting on July 26th, just two days after Opening Day, Lewis recorded two hits against the Astros. One of those hits was a tiebreaking single that drove in two runs in the top of the eighth inning to lead the Mariners to a 7-6 victory, the first Seattle win of the season.

Lewis would continue his multi-hit streak until July 31st. He recorded 13 hits during the six-game streak. Kyle was close to tying Ichiro Suzuki’s multi-hit game streak as a rookie in 2001. Ichiro had seven straight multi-hit games during his AL ROY, and MVP season.

Not only did he record six straight multi-hit games, but Lewis was also hot in general to start off the season. The Verlander home run must have given him a lot of confidence. As the tweet says, Lewis was hitting .455 at the end of July. He also had two home runs and eight RBIs going into August.

Lewis would continue playing well in August, particularly during the first half of the month. He finished August with a .286 batting average, .883 OPS, six home runs, and 13 RBIs. It was a little concerning that his RBIs were low, but that had to do with some of the other players struggling to get on base for him.

Lewis would start to lose a little traction and hype as August came to a close, but he would have a highlight in September which brought him back to the top of the ROY conversation.