Arroyo breaks his streak

Bronson Arroyo seemed to agree that he was overdue to hit someone with a pitch, but he chose to plunk Adam Everett, instead of Craig Biggio, during the Astros 6 run rally in the 5th inning. As noted yesterday, Arroyo had thrown 145 innings this season, and not hit anybody prior to last night, which is quite rare since he hit 14 batters last season. Biggio was too busy hitting to get hit, beginning with his 50th leadoff home run in the 1st inning. He had two more singles in the game as well. The Astros pulled out the win 8-5.

Elizardo Ramirez pitches the series finale for the Reds tonight. He had never hit Craig Biggio with a pitch, but he has thrown 7 of his 10 career plunks this season, including 1 in each of his last two games.

Biggio has been plunked 4 times on July 27th - John Smoltz hit him on July 27, 1992, Tom Browning plunked Biggio on July 27, 1993, and Tom Browning hit Biggio with a pitch on July 27, 1994 rounding out the earliest three year streak of plunks on the same date of Biggio's career. Brian Meadows plunked Biggio on July 27, 1998. Biggio has had only two other streaks of 3 straight years being hit by a pitch on the same date, and never had a 4 year streak. The other two were on June 20th from 1998 to 2000 and on May 15th from 1999 to 2001.