MLB's No. 3 Draft prospect belts FOURTH STRAIGHT leadoff homer
Another day, another leadoff dinger. Oregon State slugger Travis Bazzana just did something for the Beavers that only one player has done in AL/NL history.
For the fourth straight ballgame, Bazzana went yard in Oregon State's first plate appearance. His leadoff longball -- which left the bat at a reported 112 mph -- was just the appetizer. The 21-year-old Australian went deep again later in the contest, hammering a three-run clout over the left-center-field fence for his 14th home run of the year and eighth in five games.
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As MLB's No. 3 Draft prospect, Bazzana has No. 1 overall pick potential, and if he keeps mashing at his current rate it's hard to imagine he'd slip past the first few teams.
Bazzana’s streak began with one of his two jacks in Oregon State’s 14-3 win over Portland on Tuesday. On Friday, the Australia native kickstarted the Beavers' 3-1 win over Washington. On Saturday, he victimized the Huskies again, drilling the first pitch of the game over the left-center-field wall at Goss Stadium at Coleman Field.
The streak of four straight leadoff roundtrippers puts Bazzana in a small fraternity, and no AL/NL player has ever gone yard to open five consecutive games.
Brady Anderson, who homered to start games for the Orioles from April 18-21, 1996, is the only AL/NL player to have pulled that off.
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Last summer, Red Sox outfielder Alex Verdugo became only the third player in AL/NL history to lead off three consecutive games with a homer, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The Braves' Ronald Acuña Jr. went yard to open each half of a doubleheader in 2018, then also hit a leadoff homer in the next game.
Nevada's Tyler Bosetti holds the NCAA record for most consecutive games with a home run in any inning -- nine, set in 2021.