July 22, 2017

Quick Sale

Chris Sale recorded his 200th strikeout of the season Friday night in the Red Sox 6-2 win over the Angels:

Sale struck out Calhoun to complete a sixth scoreless inning Friday night in the Boston Red Sox’s 6-2 victory over the Los Angeles Angels. It marked Sale’s 200th strikeout of the season in his 20th start, putting the ace lefty in a class with Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez — Hall of Famers all — as the only pitchers to fan that many hitters in 20 or fewer starts.

But Sale’s dominance is even more historic. He has reached 200 strikeouts in only 141? innings, fewer than any American League pitcher in a season, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Johnson did it in 143 innings in 1995, and Martinez got to 200 in 147 innings in 1999.

The Angels did work him, however, as it took Sale 112 pitches to get through those six innings. Boston had a 6-0 lead at that point, and the back of the bullpen did a decent job. With starters mostly limited to around 200 innings in a season, I didn’t think we would see 300 strikeouts again, but I am being proved wrong. Limiting starts and innings limit wins, but as strikeout rates continue to rise, the 300 K barrier becomes reachable.

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