From The Top

With an on-base streak of thirty-one games as a leadoff man throgh yesterday's game, Jose Reyes has broken Benny Agbayani's team record in that (highly specialized!) category. Over the 2000 and 2001 seasons, Bobby Valentine used Benny as his leadoff man intermittently, but if you count only those games in which Agbayani was the leadoff batter, you find he was on base the last three games in which he batted leadoff in 2000 and the first 27 times he batted leadoff in 2001.

The longest streak of this type anywhere in the majors since 1962 has been by Alfonso Soriano, who was on base at least once in 58 consecutive games in which he was the leadoff hitter, spanning his last leadoff appearances for the Nationals in 2006 and his first for the Cubs in 2007. The longest such streak for one team in one season since 1962 is Craig Biggio's 51 game streak in 1998. Biggio's 51-game streak stretched across 52 games played -- 51 games in the leadoff spot in each of which he got on base, plus one game in the middle of that leadoff spot streak in which he pinch hit in the ninth spot and failed to get on.