.429! Gwynn was hitting .390 as late as August 5, 1997, but cooled in late August and September and “settled” for a .372 average and his eighth batting title. Think about that: for five years from July of 1991 to April 1996, Gwynn never had an 0-for-12 at any time. Mike Scott, he of the split-fingered fastball, was one of the best strikeout pitchers of the 1980s, and he’s the pitcher that Gwynn faced the most after Maddux and Glavine. He hit .324 in the 2000s when he was past his 40th birthday. On May 19, 1997, Gwynn was hitting .368, not to shabby for sure. The only pitcher to strike out Gwynn three times in ONE game was Bob Welch, who sadly passed away last week. That’s about 2 1/2 seasons of going hitless! But he racked up 91.2 WAR over his career, 22.0 more than Gwynn. The closest anyone has come after World War II are Wade Boggs and Rod Carew at .328, a full 10 points behind Gwynn. But Gwynn was a better hitter. Revisiting Tony Gwynn's Unbelievable MLB Career on the 6-Year Anniversary of His Death. • Gwynn's 60th celebrated all day, Sat. It was the third straight game he failed to get a hit (even though he had been on fire that month and his batting average was still at .403 after the three hitless games). He was 39-for-91 off the right-hander, with eight doubles and a triple. In 2.440 career games, Gwynn struck out twice in a game only 34 times. Tony Gwynn faced Greg Maddux 107 times in his career -- more than any other pitcher. He had at least two hits in his first five games and hit safely in his first twelve. In 1994, Gwynn had his best season at the plate. On the morning of June 11th his mark was at .409 after another three-hit game against St. Louis at Qualcomm Stadium the night before. Gwynn also had incredible success against many of the best strikeout pitchers. In his 20 seasons, Gwynn posted 45 games in which he had at least four hits: 35 with four hits, nine with five hits, and one with six hits. At the end of the day, Boggs was a more accomplished and stronger all-around player, and the WAR numbers prove it (especially dWAR). Baseball is a game of large numbers. Not only that, but Boggs was also fortunate enough to play home games at Fenway Park for most of his career while Gwynn was stuck in San Diego. Learn how your comment data is processed. With the specter of a strike hanging over the game, he ramped it up in August, hitting .475 in the 10 games before the game was stopped due to the labor strife. Yes, he hit better against RHP in his career (.345 as opposed to .325 against southpaws), but as Gwynn got older, he got better, not worse, at hitting left-handers. On April 30, 1996, three San Francisco pitchers held Gwynn hitless. Most players have a disadvantage when they are facing pitchers of the same stripe as them. Microsoft may earn an Affiliate Commission if you purchase something through recommended links in this article. He wasn’t just slapping the ball either, Gwynn had eight doubles, two triples, and two home runs off Smoltz. His 6-for-7 performance raised Gwynn’s average to .357, though he would lose the batting title that season to Andres Galarraga, who batted .370 for Colorado. ABOVE AVERAGE: A career .338 hitter, Tony leads all active players in batting average and is 18th in M.L. Tony Gwynn faced Greg Maddux 107 times in his career -- more than any other pitcher. That was the first time in THREE YEARS that Gwynn had gone more than two games without a hit, and the first time in FIVE YEARS that he had gone more than 11 at-bats without getting a base hit. It’s the type of record that gets a hitter sent to Amarillo, which is where Gwynn started his pro career. He batted .342 before the All-Star break, and .334 after. Batting average is one of the most worthless stats of all time. The pain of Gwynn's loss stung then, and it still lingers a full six years later. From 1993 to 1997, his best five-year stretch, when he won four batting titles, Gwynn hit .368, a mark that was more than 30 points ahead of the next closest batter, Mike Piazza (.337). Gooden used his fastball and curveball to keep Gwynn off-balance, actually holding Mr. Padre to a .243 mark in 77 matchups while fanning him six times. How do you explain when an otherwise unspectacular pitcher shuts down a great hitter? In 36 pitcher/batter battles, Pedro Martinez never struck out Gwynn. Again not close to great. Who the hell is Frank DiPino? Gwynn’s four games of five hits or more in 1993 are tied with Ichiro Suzuki (2004) for the most by one player in a season since 1970. He had a swing that made pitchers cry themselves to sleep. He could have stuck around the big leagues and gone 0-for-1172 and still had a .300 career batting average. He collected 83 hits in the 46 games, and even had a hit in the one game he didn’t start, delivering a pinch-hit two-run single against the Astros on June 1st. Here are nine incredible facts and stats from the career of Tony Gwynn. In 1995 he went 35 games without striking out. Tony Gwynn won eight batting titles and hit .300 in 19 of his 20 major league seasons. DiPino got Tony to hit a soft fly ball to left field. Nine amazing facts from the career of Tony Gwynn, The pitcher that Tony Gwynn could not hit — Baseball Egg. With only 92 games under his belt, Gwynn could certainly have caught fire over the home stretch and put together the first .400 season since Ted Williams in 1941. In other sports, it’s common to compare athletes and say one was better because he “won the big one”. His 45 games with at least four hits is 10th all-time (since 1954), and ranks fourth among left-handed batters behind Wade Boggs, George Brett, and Rod Carew. Born: May 9, 1960 in Los Angeles, CA us Died: June 16, 2014 in Poway, CA Buried: Dearborn Memorial Park, Poway, CA . Left-hander Gwynn has won eight career hitting titles, tied for the most in NL history. That’s a .050 batting average, which is only one-fourth of the Mendoza Line. on MLBN • Rather famously, Gwynn struck out three times in a game only once -- against Bob Welch and the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1986. He walked Gwynn once, and Tony got a sacrifice fly and a sacrifice bunt once. pic.twitter.com/cOshvjjHA6. Only once. But the comparison doesn’t hold up under scrutiny. Does that matter as far as picking the better batter? During his quest for .400 in 1986, Boggs injured himself… taking off his boots in a hotel room. Both men joined the majors in 1982 and largely finished by the 1999 season. So, who was better? In 20 seasons he struck out a total of 434 times — most hitters today strike out that much in three seasons. Not ever, not once. There are so many great stretches, but amazingly in 1997, he got maybe as hot as he’s ever been with the stick for a long stretch of time, and he did it twice. But here’s probably the most amazing thing: Maddux never struck Gwynn out. The strike-shortened season wasn’t the only bizarre twist as the two men battled for batting supremacy. The pitcher that Gwynn faced most often was Greg Maddux, which makes sense since the two were in the National League together for 15 seasons. But not with Gwynn. Gwynn hit .429 against the best pitcher of his generation, who might have been the best pitcher of all-time. For the eight-week period from mid-May to mid-July, Gwynn hit a sizzling .430 and collected at least one hit in 44 of 46 games. One year in Houston, DiPino saved 20 games. That's easily the highest average against Maddux for any player with at least 70 plate appearances. In 1994, Tony Gwynn was poised for a .400 batting average season, sporting an incredible .454 OBP to go with his .394 BA. In 1995 the baseball season was delayed and didn’t start until late April. Here are nine incredible facts and stats from the career of Tony Gwynn. Boggs won the World Series in 1996, Gwynn came up empty-handed in two trips.