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Houston Astros fans couldn’t be blamed for wondering whether infielder Mauricio Dubón was up to the unenviable task of filling in for revered second baseman Jose Altuve.
Altuve sustained a thumb injury while playing for Team Venezuela during the World Baseball Classic (WBC) before the start of the 2023 Major League Baseball (MLB) season, the seemingly unthinkable sidelining the 32-year-old for two months and thrusting Dubón into the starting lineup.
Twenty-five games in, and the native of San Pedro Sula, Honduras has simply emerged as one of the incumbent World Series champions’ most productive hitters.
A report on the Astros’ website said that Houston’s series-clinching 1-0 road victory over the Tampa Bay Rays, MLB’s best team as of Thursday, was Dubón’s 20th consecutive game with a hit.
His prowess at the plate early in the title defense prompted fourth-year skipper Dusty Baker to insert him at the top of the batting order in place of second-year shortstop and reigning Fall Classic Most Valuable Player (MVP) Jeremy Peña.
“They are all pulling for him to take it all the way to 56,” Baker joked, according to the Astros.
Baker was referencing legendary New York Yankees slugger Joe DiMaggio’s unmatched streak of 56 straight games with a hit, which occurred in 1941.
Per a Houston-based major publication, Dubón’s hitting streak is MLB’s longest of the young season.
In terms of Astros annals, the last player to have such a string in Houston is outfielder Hunter Pence in the franchise’s penultimate season as a member of the National League (NL) in 2011.
The purported glare for the 28-year-old Dubón, who entered the Rays series hitting .329, as Houston’s hottest hitter is that he’s yet to hit a home run (HR).
He could match Pence’s mark during the upcoming three-tilt World Series rematch with the Philadelphia Phillies at home.
“These guys, the young guys especially, are rising to the occasion,” Baker said, per the team. “Now we have to continue to play well against everybody.”