Ike Davis Continues To Rack Up Extra-Base Hits

On Wednesday, R.A. Dickey cruised to his 18th victory of the season, defeating the Cardinals, 6-2.  Dickey wasn't cruising the entire time, taking a precarious 2-1 lead into the middle innings.  But with one swing of Ike Davis' bat, a one-run lead turned into a four-run cushion, which was more than enough for Dickey and the bullpen.

Davis' three-run blast was his 26th homer of the year.  He also has 22 doubles to give him 48 extra-base hits on the season.  The stunning thing about Davis' extra-base hit total is that he still has not reached 100 total hits on the season.

An incredible 48.5% of Davis' 99 hits have gone for extra bases this season, which is one of the main reasons why he has 77 RBI despite his low .224 batting average.  At his current pace, Davis would finish the year with 57 extra-base hits, which would make him the 25th Met with that many extra-base hits in a single season.  However, very few of those players have had as high an extra-base hit percentage as Davis.  Here are the ten highest extra-base hit percentages in Mets history (min. 57 XBH).

1. Carlos Beltran (2006): 140 hits, 80 XBH (57.1%)
2. Mike Cameron (2004): 114 hits, 61 XBH (53.5%)
3. Todd Hundley (1996): 140 hits, 74 XBH (52.9%)
4. Howard Johnson (1991): 146 hits, 76 XBH (52.1%)
5. Dave Kingman (1975): 116 hits, 59 XBH (50.9%) 
6. Carlos Delgado (2006): 139 hits, 70 XBH (50.4%)
7. Darryl Strawberry (1987): 151 hits, 76 XBH (50.3%)
8. Howard Johnson (1989): 164 hits, 80 XBH (48.8%)
9. Darryl Strawberry (1986): 123 hits, 59 XBH (48.0%)
10. Darryl Strawberry (1988): 146 hits, 69 XBH (47.3%)

Note: In 1989, Darryl Strawberry collected 107 hits, of which 56 went for extra bases.  A total of 52.3% of his hits were of the extra-base variety.  Also, Mike Piazza's best extra-base hit percentage was 43.3%, which he accomplished in 2002 (134 hits, 58 XBH).


Should Ike Davis continue his extra-base hit pace, he would enter the top ten with his 48.5% XBH rate, just three-tenths of one percent behind Howard Johnson for eighth place.  But Davis also has a chance to post only the eighth season in franchise history in which at least half of a player's hits went for extra bases (min. 57 XBH), especially considering what he has done at the plate over the past three months.

Since June 6, Davis has collected 71 base hits.  But only 33 of them have been singles.  A total of 53.6% of all his hits since June 6 have gone for extra bases (17 doubles, 21 HR).

Yes, Ike Davis is still sporting a Kingman-esque batting average.  But like the Sky King, Davis is making the most of his safeties, cranking out extra-base hit after extra-base hit.  If he can keep this up, he's going to join some exclusive company at the end of the season.  No wonder Mets fans like Ike.