Today’s Trivia: Pete Rose turns 70 today. Since his final game on Aug. 17, 1986, who has collected the most hits?
FielderPrince Fielder faces his nemesis today, but it’s not who you might think. Fielder is just 3-for-42 (.071) with 13 strikeouts and no extra-base hits against Pittsburgh Pirates left-hander Paul Maholm. He’s not the only star player with a seemingly random pitcher that he can’t solve. Some other examples:
• Alex Rodriguez was 1-for-18 (.056) against Darrell May, a pitcher with a career 26-43 record.
• Ryan Howard traditionally has struggled against southpaws, but it’s a righty who has flummoxed him the most. Howard is 3-for-28 with 11 strikeouts against Tim Redding.
Aroldis Chapman by Appearance
Average Fastball Velocity
• Albert Pujols is 0-for-11 with three strikeouts in his career against Rodrigo Lopez. That’s all been since 2007, a period during which everyone else is hitting .291 against Lopez.
• Vladimir Guerrero (1-for-19), Mark Teixeira (1-for-18) and Ryan Zimmerman (1-for-13) all share Jeremy Guthrie as an unexpected nemesis.
• Hanley Ramirez is 0-for-10 lifetime against Charlie Morton, a pitcher who entered 2011 at 11-29 with a 5.98 ERA.
Trivia Answer: Craig Biggio’s 3,060 hits all came after Rose retired, giving him the most in that span. Rafael Palmeiro is the only other player to collect 3,000 hits from that date on. His first hit came less than one month after Rose’s last game.