Didi Gregorius stepped back onto first base -- a place that has become foreign to him lately -- and looked into the New York Yankees' dugout.
Laughing, the slumping shortstop waved at his applauding teammates, wondering if they might ask the umpire for the baseball he'd just hit. After all, he'd reached a unique milestone; why not jokingly commemorate the occasion?
"I forgot what it's [like] to be on first base with a hit instead of a walk," Gregorius said.
Before he slapped that fifth-inning single through the left side of the infield during Saturday's home win over the Oakland Athletics, Gregorius had gone 30 consecutive at-bats without recording a hit.