On Tuesday night at Citi Field, Miami’s Jose Reyes kept the major leagues’ longest hitting streak of the season going with a dribbler down first.
“I’ll take it,” Reyes said recalling the infield single. “A hit’s a hit.”
Wednesday night, again at his old stomping grounds, Reyes ran his hit streak to 26 games with a first-inning home run into the upper deck to open the scoring in a 13-0 Marlins rout of the Mets.
“I don’t hit too many homers, but when I do it one I’m going to enjoy it the most that I can,” Reyes said with the smile that once drew praise and cheers from the Mets’ faithful, but now brings boos. “It is what it is.”
Making his feat a bit more impressive was the fact Reyes drove Chris Young’s fastball despite a sore right hand that had Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen contemplating sitting his shortstop. But Reyes, whose hand still shows obvious swelling, made a case (“It’s good enough to play,” he said.) and won over Guillen, if not the Citi Field crowd.
Reyes said his hand began bothering him when he was jammed on a swing in Washington recently and then former teammate Jon Niese repeatedly came inside Tuesday.
“Jose, he loves to play,” Guillen said. “I think on this ball club a lot of people look up to him. I expect him to be the guy out there to lead this ball club the right way. And he does everything we ask him to do.”
So Reyes jump-started the Miami offense that included a pair of homers by Giancarlo Stanton, in his second day off the disabled list, and dealt the Mets a ninth straight home defeat. If they disliked Reyes in the first inning, by the time he left for a pinch-hitter in the eighth, those that remained were leaning toward loathing over dislike.
“There was some booing out there, but I don’t put any offense to it. I just want to play my game,” said Reyes who now, according to Elias Sports Bureau, is the first reigning batting champion with a hitting streak of more than 25 games since Joe DiMaggio had his record run of 56 games in 1941.
Also, according to Elias, the last reigning National League batting champ to have a streak of 25 games or more was Rogers Hornsby in 1922, when he had a 33-game run.
“I just try to be me,” Reyes said waving off the notion of thinking about the streak. “I don’t try to add any pressure. I know I have a streak going. I don’t want to think too much about it. Just want to continue to play my game.”
fred.kerber@nypost.com