Scorer Changes Call, Francisco Mejia’s Hit Streak Reaches 50

LONGEST HIT STREAKS, PRO BASEBALL
Streak	Player (League), Year
69	Joe Wilhoit (Western), 1919
61	Joe DiMaggio (Pacific Coast), 1933
56	Joe DiMaggio (American), 1941
55	Roman Mejias (Big State), 1954
50	Francisco Mejia (Midwest/Carolina), 2016
50	Otto Pahlman (Three-I League), 1922
49	Jack Ness (Pacific Coast), 1915
49	Harry Chozen (Southern Association), 1945
46	Johnny Bates (Southern Association), 1925
45	James McOwen (California), 2009
45	Wee Willie Keeler (National), 1896-1897
44	Pete Rose (National), 1978
Sources: Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, The Story Of Minor League Baseball, Google Newspaper Archive Bolded entries are from Major League Baseball

When the high Class A Lynchburg Hillcats walked off the field at the end of a 7-5 loss to Winston-Salem on Saturday night, Francisco Mejia’s two-month long hit streak was over.

An hour later, the hit streak received a second life as Lynchburg’s official scorer Malcolm Haley reversed his call on a third-inning error where Mejia hit the ball down the third base line past Dash third baseman Gerson Montilla.

When the official scorer changed the play to a double, Mejia’s hit streak officially reached 50 games, tying Otto Pahlman for the fourth-longest streak in minor league history. Mejia’s streak is the longest since the minor leagues were reorganized in 1963. Roman Mejia’s 54-game streak in 1954 is the only longer professional streak since baseball was integrated in 1946.

Mejia’s double was originally ruled an error by the official scorer because he determined it to have been a ball that Montilla should have fielded cleanly. According to Winston-Salem Dash radio play-by-play announcer Brian Boesch, the play was one of those where it would have been defensible to call it either a hit or an error.

After the game Haley met with the Hillcats coach staff for more than 30 minutes, according to Lynchburg News & Advance reporter Mark D. Robertson. When he emerged from the coaches’ office, he found the entire Lynchburg team still waiting in the clubhouse hoping for news that he had reversed the call.

By Major and Minor League Baseball’s rules, official scorers have up to 24 hours after the game ends to review and change their decision on any judgement calls.