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06/17/2009 2:28 AM ET
Rain can't stop McOwen's streak
Mariners prospect goes 2-for-2, has hit in 27 straight games
By Daren Smith / MiLB.com
James McOwen is hitting .358 with 16 RBIs and 13 runs scored during the streak. (Larry Goren/Four Seam Images)

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The only number that matters to James McOwen right now is two. That's how many wins the High Desert Mavericks need to clinch the California League South Division first-half title.

That 27-game hitting streak he's riding?

"I don't take it as too much of a big deal," McOwen said Tuesday after going 2-for-2 in the Mavericks' rain-shortened 1-0 loss to the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes.

"It could end any day. But it's nice showing up at the ballpark, knowing you've gotten a hit in 26 [straight] games."

The streak is eight games from tying the California League record, set in 1992 by Modesto's Brent Gates and matched in 2007 by Bakersfield's Chris Davis. And it's something McOwen knows about.

"You kind of have to," he said. "You see it on the team Web site. I know what's going on."

McOwen, the Mariners' sixth-round pick in the 2007 First-Year Player Draft, wasted little time getting Tuesday's hit out of the way. He singled to left field with two outs in the second inning, then got another base hit in the fifth.

The rains came an inning later, making the field at Mavericks Stadium unplayable. It was only the second time since 2002 that a game has been postponed or shortened due to rain in Adelanto, Calif.

McOwen is hitting .358 (38-for-106) during the streak, which began with an RBI triple on May 10 against Lake Elsinore. He's had nine multi-hit contests while raising his batting average 44 points to .318.

"I've been working on the same stuff all year, showing up early, hitting in the cages," the 23-year-old Florida native said. "I think I spread out my stance a little bit. That might have been around the time [the streak] started.

"Other than that, you swing at strikes, take balls and wait for pitches to hit."

McOwen has hit all over the Mavericks' lineup this season, from leadoff to eighth and ninth. And it's a lineup that features three California League All-Stars, including Joe Dunigan, who's second in the circuit in batting, homers and RBIs.

For a time, McOwen hit in front of Dunigan.

"[That made it] a lot easier," McOwen said. "I'm sure there were a lot of times when I was hitting third and he was fourth. They're not going to pitch around me to get to him, especially with two outs. They don't want to face him with men on base."

With the way he's been hitting, opposing pitchers are probably thinking the same thing about McOwen.

Daren Smith is an editor for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues or its clubs.