Nick Gonzales headshot

Nick Gonzales

Pittsburgh Pirates · 3B · through 2026-10-30

Career year

Why he matters right now

Nick Gonzales has already passed his career best in hits

He has 167; his previous best was 99, in 2025. That is measured over the two seasons of at least 200 at-bats he has played.

This has been his headline for 40 straight days.

The case in 30 seconds

  • 167 167 hits, past his previous best of 99 in 2025 year-by-year record, 2 prior seasons since 2024 (MLB Stats API, cached)
  • .303 6th in batting average at .303 on MLB's season leaderboards MLB season leaderboard (the league's own top-10 board of qualified players, not this site's roster)

The honest caveat

A career-best total is measured against his own record and nobody else's, and for most players that record is short. Beating it says this year is his best; it says nothing about where the season sits in the league, and a young player passing an early-career mark is closer to normal than to remarkable.

Every claim above, with its source (2)
  1. 167 hits, past his previous best of 99 in 2025 year-by-year record, 2 prior seasons since 2024 (MLB Stats API, cached)
  2. 6th in batting average at .303 on MLB's season leaderboards MLB season leaderboard (the league's own top-10 board of qualified players, not this site's roster)

Other cases this page considered and did not lead with: Nick Gonzales is top-10 in the majors in batting average.

The evidence

Situational splits

SplitABAVGHRRBIOPS
vs RHP 376 .316 546 .790
vs LHP 175 .274 115 .681
Home 261 .287 125 .702
Away 290 .317 536 .802
Day 218 .298 526 .798
Night 333 .306 135 .726

2026 season, MLB Stats API. A split with no plate appearances is omitted rather than shown as zeroes.

148G
551AB
167H
.303AVG
6HR
61RBI
7SB
272B
13B
.755OPS

Chasing .400

.303Current AVG
90Consecutive hits needed to reach .400
94-for-100Needed over next 100 AB
—Rest-of-season AVG to finish .400 (54-for-0)

Status: IMPOSSIBLE

Milestone tracker

ChaseTargetCurrentPaceNeeded from hereStatus
.350 AVG .350 .303 .303 — IMPOSSIBLE
.380 AVG .380 .303 .303 — IMPOSSIBLE
.400 AVG .400 .303 .303 — IMPOSSIBLE
.406 AVG .406 .303 .303 — IMPOSSIBLE
.466 AVG .466 .303 .303 — IMPOSSIBLE
50 HR 50 6 6 44 in 0 g IMPOSSIBLE
60 HR 60 6 6 54 in 0 g IMPOSSIBLE
62 HR 62 6 6 56 in 0 g IMPOSSIBLE
70 HR 70 6 6 64 in 0 g IMPOSSIBLE
73 HR 73 6 6 67 in 0 g IMPOSSIBLE
200 Hits 200 167 167 33 in 0 g IMPOSSIBLE
225 Hits 225 167 167 58 in 0 g IMPOSSIBLE
250 Hits 250 167 167 83 in 0 g IMPOSSIBLE
262 Hits 262 167 167 95 in 0 g IMPOSSIBLE
50 SB 50 7 7 43 in 0 g IMPOSSIBLE
80 SB 80 7 7 73 in 0 g IMPOSSIBLE
100 SB 100 7 7 93 in 0 g IMPOSSIBLE
130 SB 130 7 7 123 in 0 g IMPOSSIBLE
50 2B 50 27 27 23 in 0 g IMPOSSIBLE
60 2B 60 27 27 33 in 0 g IMPOSSIBLE
67 2B 67 27 27 40 in 0 g IMPOSSIBLE
20 3B 20 1 1 19 in 0 g IMPOSSIBLE
25 3B 25 1 1 24 in 0 g IMPOSSIBLE
36 3B 36 1 1 35 in 0 g IMPOSSIBLE
125 RBI 125 61 61 64 in 0 g IMPOSSIBLE
150 RBI 150 61 61 89 in 0 g IMPOSSIBLE
175 RBI 175 61 61 114 in 0 g IMPOSSIBLE
191 RBI 191 61 61 130 in 0 g IMPOSSIBLE

Recent game log

Derived nightly from the snapshot ledger — each row is the difference between consecutive days; multi-day rows are labeled.

DateOppResultABHHRRBIRSBBBKAVG
2026-10-01 (6d) — — 42 0 01 00 0 .303
2026-09-25 Detroit Tigers L 7-8 31 0 11 01 1 .302
2026-09-24 St. Louis Cardinals W 2-1 31 0 00 01 0 .301
2026-09-23 St. Louis Cardinals L 1-5 41 0 00 00 1 .301
2026-09-20 Kansas City Royals W 4-3 40 0 00 00 1 .302
2026-09-19 Kansas City Royals W 6-5 41 0 01 00 1 .304
2026-09-18 Kansas City Royals W 8-5 31 0 01 00 0 .304
2026-09-17 Milwaukee Brewers W 7-4 40 0 00 00 3 .304
2026-09-15 Milwaukee Brewers L 1-5 32 0 00 01 0 .307
2026-09-13 Chicago Cubs W 4-3 41 0 11 00 1 .304

Recent highlights

Lahman + Retrosheet context

How this season fits history

Historical twinLance Richbourg · 1929

87% season-shape match

Chase history

.300.318.33603-3110-30
Batting average, day by day
051003-3110-30
Projected HR, day by day