Jimmy Rollins' hitting streak is over. The Philadelphia Phillies' losing streak keeps going.
Rollins went 0-for-4, ending his 38-game hitting streak that stretched over two seasons, and the Phillies lost 4-2 to the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday.
After finishing with a 36-game hitting streak last year, Rollins kept up his pursuit of Joe DiMaggio's major league record 56-game streak with hits in his first two games this season.
But he was hitless in three tries against Jason Marquis -- he's 3-for-25 against him -- and one at-bat against Josh Hancock. Rollins flied out to right field (first inning), left field (fifth) and center field (seventh), and was retired trying to bunt for a single in the third.
Rollins was the fifth batter due up in the ninth, but Jason Isringhausen retired the side in order, getting Mike Lieberthal to ground out to third base to end the game.
Rollins' season-ending 36-game hitting streak was the ninth-longest over one season in big league history, and the longest in the majors since 1987, when Paul Molitor hit safely in 39 consecutive games.
A three-time All-Star shortstop, Rollins' pursuit of DiMaggio's 65-year-old record had a catch. DiMaggio accomplished his feat in the same season in 1941. The major league marks for longest hitting streak in one season and longest hitting streak spanning two seasons are separate records.
DiMaggio holds both with his 56-game streak, but there is a difference in the NL records: Pete Rose (1978) and Willie Keeler (1897) share the NL mark at 44 games. However, Keeler got a hit in his final game of 1896, so his run of 45 games overall was the first record Rollins could've eclipsed.
The old Phillies franchise record of 31 was set by Ed Delahanty in 1899.
