Los Angeles Angels rookie Nolan Schanuel's pursuit of history was halted by Major League Baseball due to a retroactive scoring change.
It was assumed that Schanuel extended his on-base streak to start his career to 36 games - two shy of the second-longest streak ever - when he drew a fifth-inning walk on Friday night. But less than an hour later, MLB announced that his single in the Angels' March 30 game at Baltimore - the only time Schanuel had reached base in that contest - was changed to an error on Orioles pitcher Mike Baumann.
Official on-base streaks only include players reaching via a hit, walk, or hit-by-pitch. Thus, Baumann's March 30 error cost Schanuel a shot at the record and retroactively ended his streak at 30 games.
🚨CHANGE 15🚨
— MLB Scoring Changes (@ScoringChanges) April 6, 2024
3/30 @Angels at @Orioles
T9 the single for Nolan Schanuel has been changed to a dropped-catch error charged charged to Mike Baumann with an assist for Ryan Mountcastle.
Change 2 for BAL#RepTheHalo #Birdland pic.twitter.com/OGepUeIMZd
MLB denied the Angels' petition to have the ruling reversed, according to Sam Blum of The Athletic. The team apparently went to great lengths to try to convince the league to restore Schanuel's streak, to no avail.
"Disappointing, but time to move on," Schanuel told Brandon Deutsch of the Sporting Tribune about the decision. "Got bigger goals, focusing on winning more games."
Before the scoring change, Schanuel had been just two games back of tying Truck Hannah, a catcher with the Yankees in 1918, for the second-longest on-base streak to start a career. He would have still had a ways to go for the all-time record of 47 games, set by the Mariners' Alvin Davis in 1984.
But Schanuel can take solace in the fact that he's still among elite company. His 30-game on-base streak - which began last season - goes down as the longest of the wild-card era (since 1995) and third longest since 1900.
| Player | Team | Year | Streak |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alvin Davis | Mariners | 1984 | 47 |
| Truck Hannah | Yankees | 1918 | 38 |
| Nolan Schanuel | Angels | 2023-24 | 30 |
| Enos Slaughter | Cardinals | 1938 | 29 |
| George Scott | Red Sox | 1966 | 26 |
| Dick Howser | Athletics | 1961 | 26 |
The 22-year-old Schanuel was drafted 11th overall by the Angels out of Florida Atlantic last July and made his big-league debut barely five weeks later. In his first 36 big-league games, he's hit .248/.388/.318 with two homers, 10 RBIs, 26 walks, and four HBPs.
Despite getting into 29 games down the stretch last year, Schanuel narrowly maintained his rookie eligibility for 2024.
