Guardians Rookie Steven Kwan Swings and Misses for First Time in 2022 Season

It took rookie Steven Kwan until his sixth MLB career game this season to swing and miss for the first time.

The Guardians center fielder had a historic opening weekend. Kwan got to base 18 times in five games, something that hasn’t been done since 1901. He reached base three times on Tuesday, still never swinging and missing. Well, that was until Wednesday afternoon against the Reds.

It took Kwan 116 pitches in the majors to swing and miss for the first time, which becomes the longest streak out of players who have debuted since 2000. The previous best was 100 pitches by David Fletcher.

The swing and a miss came during the first inning of the Guardians’ Wednesday game off of the second pitch to him. The pitch was an 81 mph curveball from Nick Lodolo. Kwan ended up striking out on this plate appearance.

His first strikeout also ended a nearly seven-month streak for Kwan. He had not struck out since Sept. 26, 2021, when he was playing with Triple A Columbus. He had 76 plate appearances since then until his Wednesday strikeout. 

Kwan’s historic run is now over, but his name will remain in history. He reached a base safely in 18 of 24 plate appearances, which is now the record for most times a player in his first five games has reached a base. It passes Jay Bruce’s record of 17 made in 2008.

Through four innings, Kwan ended up walking in his second plate appearance of the day and then having another swing and miss during his third appearance.

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