That's 28 batters faced and 27 retired. His lone blip was a walk to Mark Reynolds last Monday in a game the Pirates had basically already lost anyways. This isn't going to get any national recognition, but I think this is a pretty big deal. He has got 27 straight outs without allowing a hit, if he did that all in one game, his name would be in the hall of fame. Obviously, it's a lot easier to do when you have days of rest between innings, but this just doesn't happen. He's not doing it against cupcake hitters either, look at the names on that list. Chase Utley, Justin Upton, Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran, Jason Bay, Hunter Pence, Carlos Lee, Vladimir Guerrero, Nick Markakis, Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia, Adrian Gonzalez... these are some of the league's best hitters.
In 2007, Bobby Jenks retired 41 straight batters in a row, which was a major league record for a reliever. In 2009, Mark Buehrle broke that record for any pitcher, by retiring 45 straight batters. Unfortunately, the walk Hanrahan surrendered keeps his name out of this discussion, but this streak certainly has to be one of the best we have seen by a reliever in a long time, and it's not over yet.
Hanrahan has taken the mound 9 times in a row without allowing a hit, and has recorded 7 saves in those 9 appearances. He is currently the only closer in baseball with double-digit saves that has not blown a save. His ERA is an astounding 1.27 and there is very little argument that he has been the best reliever in the National League this year, if not all of baseball.
If Hanrahan would have performed this streak all in one game, I certainly wouldn't be the only blogger writing about it. But a couple more weeks like this and Hanrahan will be the closer for the National League All-Star team, and people won't have a choice but to write about him.