Atlanta Braves’ Spencer Strider has become the fastest player in Major League Baseball history to reach the 100-strikeout plateau in a season.
Strider pitched six innings of two-hit, two-strikeout ball against the NL East rival Philadelphia Phillies on Monday (Sept. 29) at Truiste Park to lead the Braves to an 11-4 victory. At 32-21, Atlanta maintained its lead in the division. They have a 4.5-game lead over the second-place Miami Marlins.
Strider struck out nine and pushed his season strikeout total to 106, leading both leagues in that category.
Most notably, he struck out leadoff hitter Nick Castellanos on an 85-mph slider in the top of the fourth inning with a 7-2 lead to reach 100 strikeouts in 61 innings, the fastest pace in modern baseball history. The previous record was 61⅔ innings by the New York Mets’ Jacob deGrom in 2021.
Strider had thrown 57⅔ innings in his previous outing, and his strikeout of Castellanos marked the 3⅓ inning mark.
“It’s a great record,” Strider said. I want to keep pitching like this,” Strider said, adding, “I felt like the game was decided early when they got a big lead in the first inning. On a day like this, my job is not to throw perfect pitches, but to get outs.”
Atlanta took the lead in the top of the first on a Ronald Acuna Jr. single and a Matt Olson double, then exploded for seven runs on Austin Riley’s mid-month solo shot, an RBI double by A.J. Albies and an RBI single by Acuna Jr. to put the game out of reach.
Strider, who threw 102 pitches, used 67 of his four-seam fastball, which topped out at 99.9 mph and averaged 97.6 mph. He also threw 28 sliders and seven changeups.
Strider walked leadoff man Cody Clemens in the third inning and then gave up a two-run homer to Brandon Marsh to center field. The next five innings were all triple plays. In the fourth, he retired the first three batters he faced – Castellanos, Kyle Schwarber, and JT Realmuto – and in the fifth and sixth, he retired 11 straight batters with two strikeouts apiece.
Strider now has 106 strikeouts in 63⅔ innings for a 14.984 strikeout-to-walk ratio (SO/9 IP). The all-time record in that category is 14.198 by Shane Bieber 메이저사이트 of the 2020 Cleveland Cavaliers in the 60-game shortened season. In a full season, Gerrit Cole of the Houston Astros had a 13.818 in 2019.
Strider, who started the season as the No. 2 starter, is on pace to strike out 327 batters this year if he stays in the rotation and maintains his current pace.
With a 5-2 record and a 2.97 ERA, Strider has a 0.99 WHIP and a 0.178 batting average. He is tied for fifth in the NL in wins, seventh in ERA, first in WHIP, first in strikeouts, and eighth in innings pitched.
Meanwhile, Acuna Jr. has made a strong case for MVP honors this year, going 5-for-5 with a home run, three RBIs, and two runs scored. As of today, he ranks third in the NL in batting average (.333), first in OPS (.986), first in runs scored (48) and first in stolen bases (22).