Nick Kurtz’s 48-game on-base streak ended Tuesday night, when he went 0 for 4 with three strikeouts in the Athletics’ 4-1 loss to the Seattle Mariners. The run had tied him with Mark McGwire for the longest on-base streak in franchise history.
Emerson Hancock set the tone early, striking out Kurtz in the first inning, getting him to line out in the fourth and striking him out again in the sixth. Gabe Speier finished the job with a strikeout in the eighth. For Kurtz, who still leads the majors with a.437 on-base percentage and 52 walks, the night was the first blank in a stretch that had run through 48 straight games.
The streak had been the longest in the majors since Shin-Soo Choo reached base in 52 consecutive games in 2018. It also put Kurtz in rare company alongside McGwire, who reached base safely in 48 straight games in 1996, and within reach of a major league standard that has stood untouched for decades. Ted Williams set the record in 1949 by reaching base safely in 84 straight games.
Even with the streak over, Kurtz’s season remains hard to ignore. He has eight home runs, 37 RBIs and a.270 batting average, production that has kept him in the middle of the Athletics’ lineup and on the short list of the game’s most productive young hitters. The loss in Seattle was a reminder that even the hottest stretches end, but it did not erase what the rookie had just done over the previous seven weeks.
What comes next is simpler now: Kurtz starts over, and pitchers will keep testing whether Tuesday was a one-night break or the beginning of a longer downturn. For the Athletics, the larger question is whether his on-base skill can keep carrying over against the kind of pitching that finally stopped him in Seattle.
