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The 3-0 Pujols Strikeout

21 April 2008
Written by: Aneel Posted under baseball oddities, baseball, san francisco giants

How many of you have watched a game in which a player hit for the cycle?  My guess is that if you have, you remember who did it, when it was, and who it was against.  Why?  Because it’s a baseball rarity!  Since 2001, a player has hit for the cycle only 28 times in more than 17,000 MLB games, making your chance of seeing a cycle in any one game somewhere around 0.16%

Well, if you watched Tim Lincecum face Albert Pujols on Saturday, you witnessed something even more rare: Albert Pujols struck out after seeing a 3-0 count.  How rare is that?  When Lincecum struck out Pujols after starting him 3-0, it was just the fifth time anyone had done it.  And with Pujols having more than 4,800 PA in his career, that makes your chances of seeing the feat in any one Pujols PA just 0.10%.

So, enjoy what you can in this rough season for Giants fans… if you watched on Saturday, you witnessed something rare, and something worth remembering.

Trivia Question: Who was the last pitcher to strike out Pujols after starting him with 3 straight balls?


2 Responses to ' The 3-0 Pujols Strikeout '

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  1. Mark C. O'Connor said,

    on April 22nd, 2008 at 9:48 am

    That’s a hell of a stat. I knew that was a great K at the time–Pujols, after all–but only the 5th time? Wow!

    OK, I give up.

  2. Aneel said,

    on April 22nd, 2008 at 10:13 am

    Amazingly, the last pitcher to strikeout Pujols after starting him 3-0 was… Kevin Correia, just one week earlier!

    Here’s all 5:
    04/12/2002 - Billy Wagner
    04/23/2002 - Jeff D’Amico
    06/08/2007 - Bartolo Colon
    04/10/2008 - Kevin Correia
    04/19/2008 - Tim Lincecum

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