Nolan Arenado extends hitting streak to 27 games, tying a Rockies franchise record - MLB

Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado smacked a first-inning double off Rangers right-hander Colby Lewis on Wednesday evening in Arlington, Texas, extending his hitting streak to 27 games and tying Michael Cuddyer for the longest hitting streak in the 21-year history of the Rockies franchise.

(Cuddyer set his 27-game mark in 2013).

Arenado, a budding star at age 23, is now batting .329 with an .894 OPS in 36 games this season while offering elite-level defense at third base. According to MLB.com’s Thomas Harding, the last time someone 23 or younger had a hitting streak this long was in 2003, when Albert Pujols hit in 30 straight games for the Cardinals. Here is Arenado’s record-tying double from Wednesday …

[mlbvideo id=”32693061″ width=”400″ height=”224″ /]

Joe DiMaggio has the longest hitting streak in major league history at 56 games. He set that in 1941.

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Roger Clemens will be an analyst for ESPN when the defending World Series champion Houston Astros host the Chicago White Sox on opening day.

Clemens made four appearances on last year’s KayRod Cast with Michael Kay and Alex Rodriguez. He will be stepping in on March 30 for David Cone, who will be doing the New York Yankees opener against the San Francisco Giants on YES Network.

“Roger has been sort of a friend of ours for the last year, so to speak, he’s in. He’s been engaged, knowledgeable and really present,” said ESPN Vice President of Production Phil Orlins. “You know, whatever past may be, he’s still tremendously engaged and he really brought that every time he was with us.”

Clemens was a seven-time Cy Young winner but his career after baseball has been tainted by allegations of performance-enhancing drug use. He is a Houston native and pitched for the Astros for three seasons.

Orlins said that with the rules changes and pitch clock, it is important to have a pitcher in the booth with Karl Ravech and Eduardo Perez.

“We don’t feel like we have to have the dynamic of Eduardo with a pitcher, but we certainly think that works. Throw in the added factor of rule changes and it is better to have a batter-pitcher perspective,” Orlins said.

Orlins did not say if this would open the door for future opportunities for Clemens as an ESPN analyst.