Boston Red Sox ace Chris Sale had been struggling through the summer prior to going eight scoreless innings against the Los Angeles Angels in his previous start.
It now appears that the former Cy Young winner is set to go on a late-summer run. He struck out five batters in three scoreless innings to open Tuesday’s start against the Cleveland Indians.
This put Sale in the record books. He’s now the fastest pitcher in Major League Baseball history (1,626 innings pitched) to compile 2,000 career strikeouts.
Given the amazing hurlers we’ve seen throughout the history of the game, this is an absolutely astounding record. Sale bested the likes of Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson and Roger Clemens in this category.
Unfortunately for Sale, the modern game won’t afford him the ability to vie for the all-time mark. Ryan holds that mark with 5,714 career strikeouts. That’s one record we’ll never seen broken.