Denny Medley-Imagn Images
Major League Baseball fans have the chance to take home $5.6 million thanks to the “Beat the Streak” contest that hinges on their ability to correctly pick one player capable of recording a hit in a game 57 times in a row. One person had managed to do exactly that on 50 consecutive occasions before the counter reset to zero thanks to what transpired earlier this week.
In 1941, Joe DiMaggio set an MLB record many baseball fans view as unbeatable when he rattled off a 56-game hitting streak to break the mark of 45 that Willie Keeler had previously achieved toward the end of the 19th century. Pete Rose managed to get close to 80% of the way there when he had a hit in 44 games in a row in 1978, but that’s the closest anyone has come in more than 80 years.
In 2001, the MLB gave fans the chance to put together a run of their own with “Beat the Streak,” a contest where you’re tasked with picking one player to get a hit on any given day and doing exactly that 57 straight times if you want to win a jackpot that sits at $5.6 million.
No one has been able to hit that mark since the inception of Beat the Streak; in 2017, a guy named Robert Mosley came closer than anyone ever has with a string of 51 correct guesses, but he fell short of the goal after Ezequiel Carrera went 0-4 at the plate.
On Monday, a Beat the Streak player with the username “lotank” had the chance to tie that record and move one step closer to getting the grand prize by tapping Athletics shortstop Jacob Wilson to get a hit against the Astros while riding a 50-game run.
It was a pretty solid pick when you consider Wilson was boasting a .367 batting average and had recorded a hit in 16 of the 18 contests leading up to that showdown with Houston.
He started the night 0-3 at the plate, but it looked like he was going to be credited with a hit when he hit a blooper that ultimately landed in no man’s land in shallow right field.
Unfortunately, Max Schuemann was on first base and had to wait to see if the ball was going to be caught before making his way to second, and he was thrown out in a play that was scored as a fielder’s choice—meaning Wilson remained hitless.
And this is how the streak ends with Jacob Wilson as the pick … this is correctly scored a fielder’s choice and not a hit because the runner from first was forced out at second.
A BRUTAL way for a 50-game streak to end. He was so close to $5.6 million. https://t.co/NxzW6Sp3jr pic.twitter.com/cfStfU1j8q
— MLB Scoring Changes (@ScoringChanges) June 17, 2025
He didn’t get another appearance before the A’s walked it off in the bottom of the ninth, which means the streak in question was officially dead at 50 games.
There is a silver lining, as there is $10,000 reserved for the Beat the Streak player who posts the longest one over the course of the season. That’s a solid chunk of change, but it’s obviously a bit less than $5.6 million.