Ex-Mariners star Harold Reynolds has a problem with Whit Merrifield’s hitting streak

Royals outfielder/infielder Whit Merrifield talked before Monday’s game against Seattle about his hitting streak, which has spanned two seasons.

Merrifield said it’s difficult to get right back in the groove of a new season after months away from the game. Merrifield then went out and extended his hit streak to 29 games with leadoff single in the first inning.

Fans may wonder who would be critical of a streak spanning two seasons. Well, former Mariners star Harold Reynolds wasn’t shy about sharing his thoughts about Merrifield’s hitting streak and Rays outfielder Tommy Pham’s 43-game on-base streak.

“I’m not a fan of it,” Reynolds said on the video streaming service DAZN. “You can’t carry over. I look at it this way: the beauty of baseball is it’s an endurance sport. It’s, can you weather 162 games? So once you get to July, we call it the dog days of summer in August, because you’re getting tired. I remember too many times having to adjust your at-bat. Do you swing a 33-ounce bat instead of a 34-ounce bat? ... What do you do to get that bat through the zone?

“I (didn’t) feel like eating. You guys have been in the hot summer in New York, you don’t feel like eating food. How do you keep your energy up? I think it’s wrong when you can go home for four months, rebuild your body, work out, lift, get stronger, all that, come back and say, ‘Hey, I’ve got a streak.’ No, it doesn’t work like that.”

Here is the clip:

This story was originally published April 9, 2019 at 8:47 AM.