Any time somebody starts to get remotely close to a record, people begin paying attention.

If a pitcher has a no-hitter going in the fifth inning, the broadcasters start to bring it up. MLB.com puts a red No-Hitter alert banner across the score of that game.

If a hitter is working on a hitting streak of more than twenty games, it’s the countdown to Joe DiMaggio’s fifty-six.

If someone is on pace for that historic sixty home run season, the daily countdown begins.

So, it’s time to start recognizing Marcus Semien and his march to immortality. Semien is currently 0-for-his-last-25 plate appearances.

He is entering the zone. He is edging slowly toward Chris Davis’s record of sixty-two consecutive plate appearances without a hit, set just three years ago while with Baltimore.

Semien is only thirty-seven hitless plate appearances away. The record is well within his grasp.

So, doing the math, we can figure out when he will achieve this historic milestone. He is averaging four plate-appearances a game, he is thirty-seven away. So, Marcus Semien will break Chris Davis’s record of consecutive plate appearances without a hit in ten games, on May 25, on the road against the Angels.

Of course, this isn’t an exact science because the Rangers might sit him out a game in that streak or, more unlikely, move him down in the lineup so he doesn’t eat up four plate appearances.

But circle May 25 on your calendar. Maybe MLB can fly in Chris Davis so he can be in the stands to watch his record be broken.

The excitement is mounting. Can’t you just feel it? Another historic year for Texas Rangers baseball is under way.

*****