Luis Gonzalez Ends Hit Streak

May 19, 1999 / 8:48 PM EDT / CBS/AP

Hitless in his first three at-bats, Luis Gonzalez stepped out of the batter's box briefly during his final plate appearance in the eighth to let the enormity of his accomplishment sink in for a moment.

Then he swung and missed, ending his hitting streak at 30 games.

Gonzalez went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts as his Arizona Diamondbacks lost 8-3 to the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday. He ended up tied for the longest hitting streak of the 1990s.

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"I'm not disappointed at all, I had a great run. It was fun," Gonzalez said. "I got to 30 games. I finally got into an elite group with a bunch of great ballplayers. There are a lot of players that are still playing that are good and have never had streaks like this."

The win moved the Giants back into a tie atop the NL West with the Diamondbacks, who began the day in sole possession of first place for the first time in franchise history.

Jeff Kent hit a tiebreaking homer leading off the sixth and Rich Aurilia added a two-run shot two batters later as the Giants avoided getting swept by Arizona in the three-game series.

Gonzalez, who had the longest hitting streak in the NL since Jerome Walton of the Chicago Cubs also hit in 30 games in 1989, became the 12th player to have a hitting streak end at 30 games. Only 23 players have had longer streaks, including Ty Cobb and George Sisler who each did it twice.

Gonzalez, who had three hits Tuesday night in a 7-3 win over the Giants, struck out swinging in the first and looking in the fourth. He grounded meekly to second on the first pitch he faced in the sixth, and struck out swinging at a pitch in the dirt in the eighth.

"This is probably the worst I felt at the plate all year. I was really indecisive on pitches," he said. "Sometimes as a hitter you're not comfortable in the box, and it was one of those days. I rarely strike out three times in a game."

The 30-game streak is tied for the longest in baseball in the 1990s with Boston's Nomar Garciaparra (1997), Cleveland's Sandy Alomar Jr. (1997) and Baltimore's Eric Davis (1998).

After going 0-or-3 against Kirk Rueter, Gonzalez faced Alan Embree in the eighth. Embree got two quick strikes, then ended the hitting streak by getting Gonzalez to swing at a pitch way off the plate.

"You don't want to be the one to keep the streak going," Embree said. "I was fortunate to get ahead of him. I told myself if I got ahead of him, I'd throw three straight sliders in the dirt and try to get him to commit."

With the game tied at 2 in the sixth, Kent hit his sixth homer over the left-field bleachers and, after J.T. Snow reached first on a wild pitch while striking out, Aurilia hit his seventh homer just over the left-field fence.

Rueter (3-2) allowed three runs and six hits in seven innings for the Giants. Andy Benes (2-5) gave up five runs on five hits and six walks in six innings for the Diamondbacks, losing his third straight start.

Damian Miller hit a two-run homer, his fourth, in the second for Arizona. The Giants tied the game in the fourth on an RBI double by F.P. Santangelo and an RBI single by Rueter.

Miller had an RBI double in the seventh for the Diamondbacks. The Giants scored three in the eighth on a two-run double by Brent Mayne and an RBI single by Marvin Benard.

The Giants regained a share of the division lead after falling out of first place on Tuesday night for the first time this season. Giants manager Dusty Baker said that's more important than ending Gonzalez' streak.

"He can hit in a hundred games in a row as far as we're concerned, as long as those hits don't beat us," Baker said. "But if anybody's going to stop him, it might as well be us."

The game included a play that made a mess of scorebooks.

In the fourth, with Santangelo on second and Mayne on first for the Giants and two outs, Rueter's single scored Santangelo but Mayne was tagged out at third after a long rundown that included a dropped ball and a missed tag.

The play was scored 7-5-6-4-5-2.

Notes: Second base umpire Angel Hernandez left the game in the top of the third with lower back pain and returned in the fourth after getting treatment in the Giants' clubhouse. ... RF Ellis Burks was scratched from the Giants' starting lineup with tightness in his right quadriceps. ... The Diamondbacks have 33 homers in 22 road games this season. ... Arizona and San Francisco are 9-9 against each other since the Diamondbacks began play last year. ... Gonzalez failed to reach base in a game for the first time this season. ... The Giants grounded into four double plays. They also grounded into two on Tuesday night. ... Bill Mueller walked four times for the Giants.