» HAL McCOY: Rose: Now and forever ‘The Hit King’
He had 10 five-hit games in his career, in a span of 13 years
The first of those games came in his third season, in 1965 facing the New York Mets, which included three singles and a home run against future Hall of Famer Warren Spahn.
Rose's last five-hit performance came in game No. 3,555, just eight before he played the final game of his career. On that date, Aug. 11, 1986, he went 5-for-5 with a double and 3 RBIs against the Giants.
Rose's five-hit games:
Date | Rose Team | Opponent | Performance |
April 30, 1965 | Reds | New York Mets | 5-for-5 |
June 18, 1968 | Reds | Atlanta Braves | 5-for-5 |
Sept. 28, 1968 | Reds | San Francisco Giants | 5-for-5 |
July 10, 1970 | Reds | Atlanta Braves | 5-for-5 |
July 26, 1973 | Reds | Atlanta Braves | 5-for-5 |
Aug. 1, 1975 | Reds | Los Angeles Dodgers | 5-for-5 |
July 2, 1976 | Reds | Houston Astros | 5-for-7 |
April 29, 1978 | Reds | New York Mets | 5-for-6 |
April 28, 1982 | Phillies | Los Angeles Dodgers | 5-for-5 |
Aug. 11, 1986 | Reds | San Francisco Giants | 5-for-5 |
He doubled in about 1 of every 5 games during his career
Rose is second all-time in doubles, with 746 (Tris Speaker is first with 792). He had at least one double in 608 of his 3,562 career games, or in about 19 percent of the games.
In 67 of those games, he had more than one doubles, and he collected three doubles four times. One of those three-double games came against future Hall of Famer Fergie Jenkins on Aug. 24, 1971. Rose went 3-for-5, scored three runs and drove in a run.
Doubles | Number of games |
0 | 2,887 |
1 | 608 |
2 | 63 |
3 | 4 |
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He had multi-homer performances in 0.1 percent of his games
But, it did happen. Rose smacked multiple home runs in five of his 3,562 games. One of those could be considered one of his best games, a 5-for-6, three-homer, four-RBI, four-run game against the New York Mets on April 29, 1978. That gave Rose, not known as a power hitter, one of 28 three-homer performances in Reds history. He has as many as Ted Kluszewski.
His multi-home run games:
Date | Rose team | Opponent | Home runs |
April 29, 1978 | Reds | New York Mets | 3 |
July 17, 1966 | Reds | Atlanta Braves | 2 |
Aug. 30, 1966 | Reds | 2 | |
Aug. 2, 1967 | Reds | Atlanta Braves | 2 |
Aug. 9, 1970 | Reds | Los Angeles Dodgers | 2 |
His favorite hitting day was early in the season
Rose's best calendar date for hitting during his career (with at least 40 at-bats) was April 7. In 10 games on that date, he hit 19-of-43 (.442). Nine of those games were multi-hit performances.
His least favorite date? Aug. 23. He went 15-of-82 (.183) in 20 games.
Rose's top-performing dates (with at least 40 at-bats):
Date | H-AB | AVG |
April 7 | 19-43 | .442 |
July 6 | 30-72 | .417 |
July 26 | 29-71 | .408 |
Aug. 24 | 31-76 | .408 |
May 9 | 32-79 | .405 |
Sept. 28 | 31-77 | .403 |
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He came to the plate 8 times in more than one game
Four, to be exact. In games in 1964, '67, '73 and '80, Rose was credited with eight at-bats. But in those fertile times, he didn't produce his most compelling games. His best showing in the eight at-bat outings was a 4-for-8 performance in a 16-inning game against the Mets on Aug. 20, 1973.
In that game, Tom Seaver pitched 12 of the 16 innings for the Mets, four seasons before he joined the Reds. Rose collected three of the seven hits Seaver allowed in those 12 innings.
He holds the Major League record for at-bats, with 14,053 in his career.
His longest hitting drought was seven straight games
It came in his 21st season. From May 31 to June 7 in 1983, Rose went a combined 0-for-20. He broke the streak with a pinch-hit single against Hall of Famer Bruce Sutter of the Cardinals in the nine inning of a game on June 8.
Rose also had only one six-game hitless streak, which came in June 1964, his season major-league season.
His longest career hitless streaks:
Hitless Streak | Number |
7 games | 1 |
6 games | 2 |
5 games | 7 |
4 games | 13 |
The best full hitting month of his career was September 1979
In 29 games that month, Rose hit .421 (51-of-121). He was hitless in just two of those 29 games, and he had 16 multi-hit games. One stretch, from Sept. 8 to Sept. 18, saw him go a combined 19-of-31 (.613) in seven games, all multi-hit performances.
He started the 1976 season by hitting .466 in April, but that wasn't a full month, with 17 games.
Rose's best-hitting months (at least 15 games):
Month | Games | H-AB | AVG |
April 1976 | 17 | 34-73 | .466 |
Sept. 1979 | 29 | 51-121 | .421 |
July 1973 | 31 | 52-126 | .413 |
Sept. 1984 | 15 | 23-56 | .411 |
April 1968 | 17 | 29-71 | .408 |
April 1966 | 30 | 52-129 | .403 |
June 1970 | 24 | 38-95 | .400 |
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