Minor Leaguer Leads Off Four Consecutive Games With Homers

Ty Griffin insists he’s the same hitter he has always been. Modest for a former Olympian and first-round draft pick who hit leadoff home runs in four consecutive Texas League games.

The switch-hitting Griffin, in the lineup for double-A Arkansas only because of an injury, hit the first pitch of Monday night’s game at Jackson over the left-center field wall, his fourth leadoff home run in as many nights.

The streak ended when he grounded out to the pitcher to start Tuesday night’s game.

“It surprises me that I’ve hit four in four games, but the home runs don’t surprise me,” Griffin said before the streak ended Tuesday. “I’ve probably done everything else . . . hit three home runs in a game, hit one from both sides of the plate.”

But he, and likely no one else ever in organized professional baseball, had led off four consecutive games with home runs.

“Go ahead and claim a record and challenge someone to prove it’s not,” said Bill Weiss, a columnist for Baseball America who has dealt with minor league statistics for more than 40 years. “It has to be rare.”

Griffin played at Georgia Tech and was on the United States team that won the gold medal in the 1988 Seoul Olympics.