It's official: Francisco Mejia owns the longest hitting streak in professional baseball in 2016.
The Indians' No. 8 prospect delivered a single on the second pitch he saw on Monday night to extend his hitting streak to 30 games and pass the streaks of the Red Sox's Jackie Bradley Jr. and Triple-A El Paso's Alex Dickerson (Padres' No. 23), both of whom hit safely in 29 straight games earlier this season. Mejia finished the game 2-for-4 at the plate for Class A Advanced Lynchburg, which fell to Frederick, 9-6.
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"What I've seen him do this year, as opposed to last year, is he's swinging at quality pitches to hit," Hillcats hitting coach Larry Day told MiLB.com. "Last year, he's got such great bat-to-ball -- as good as I've ever seen -- but often times, he would leave the zone to where he'd put the ball in play weakly. Now he seems to have a more mature and advanced approach to where he's swinging at better pitches, and because they're better pitches, he's able to make more quality contact at a more consistent rate."
Mejia last failed to record a hit in a game was May 25, when he was still a member of Class A Lake County. At that time, the 20-year-old backstop owned a .295/.333/.418 slash line through 36 games for the Captains.

MILB Video - Title: Mejia triples to extend his streak to 28 games - Url: http://www.milb.com/r/video?content_id=888213183

Since then, Mejia has hit .410 with 17 extra-base hits including six home runs and 12 multi-hit performances in his last 30 contests. Meanwhile, the fact that he was promoted to Lynchburg from Lake County on June 29 -- after pacing all Midwest League hitters with a .347 average through 60 games -- makes his feat all the more impressive, as he's managed to extend his streak in each of his first six contests with the Hillcats.
"He's getting hits on strikes, fastball strikes out over the plate early in the count, and he's also gone pretty late into counts and been able to get hits as well," Day told MiLB.com. "I think that, in itself, shows maturity that he's ready to hit -- if it's a fastball out over the plate on a heater early or he's actually stayed through some breaking pitches too.
He's putting himself in a position both from an approach standpoint and timing standpoint and a postural standpoint to be able to hit multiple pitches," Day said. "The one thing when guys have hitting streaks or hit for a high average, they have and they allow themselves margin for error within their swing."