Sale Ks 18, on pace to set new mark

Mired in a losing season, Chris Sale (9-16) pulled out a masterful performance Thursday night, with a league-high 18 strikeouts in a 3-hit, 4-0 shutout at Tucson.

It's the second consecutive shutout for Sale, who in his previous start surpassed 300 strikeouts for the year, a feat achieved by only a few in DMBL history. It's the first time since 2016 (Hoboken's Clayton Kershaw had 308 Ks, tied for 3rd-best all time). He long ago obliterated his previous career high of 263 in 2016, which he fell short of matching last year but just one.

Sale had already been on pace to at least challenge the league record for strikeouts in a season and Thursday's performance could put him on pace to likely establish a new mark. Randy Johnson set the mark in 1996 with 349 Ks for Newark and Pedro Martinez had 347 K's for Arkansas in 2000. Johnson also had the 3rd most ever, with 308 strikeouts in 2001.

Sale entered Thursday's matchup with 304 Ks, tied with Hideo Nomo (Louisiana, 1996) for the 4th-most in a season. He now has 322 strikeouts and needs only 27 to tie the record, with as many as four starts remaining among the Experience's 21 games left. He would need to average just 6.75 strikeouts per start. Before Thursday's barrage of strikeouts, Sale aimed to average an even 9.0 strikeouts over his last five starts to match Johnson's mark, so he basically got two games' worth of the Ks he needed out of the way. Sale was leading the league with 13.3 K/9 -- 1.5 more than Kluber (11.8) -- and improved that to 13.5 K/9 after Thursday's victory.

Sale has gone an average of 7 1/3 innings in his 29 starts (214.3 IP) this season. Based on his 13.5 K/9, that's an average of 10.95 K per 7 1/3 innings, meaning if Sale hits his averages over his last four starts, he should rack up almost 44 strikeouts, bringing his season total to a projected 366 - shattering the record by 17 Ks. Going into Thursday's game, he had been on pace for almost 358 strikeouts.

How likely is Sale to reach his averages? He's recorded 23 starts of double-digit Ks, failing to reach 10 strikeouts in only 6 of his 29 starts, and in two of those he had 9 strikeouts. At one point this season, he struck out 10 or more in 11 consecutive starts. His season low of 6 came in the game before his 18-strikeout start. He only needs to average 6.75 per start to tie the record. The 29-year-old might also have some incentive in San Francisco's lost season; with 16 losses, there's still a chance he could reach 20 during this first-ever losing record.

As for Thursday's masterpiece, Sale walked just one -- the second batter of the game -- and yielded three meaningless singles. The 18 strikeouts are one better than the previous high by Sardine City's Corey Kluber in May, and one short of the league record, set by Ken Hill (?!), who did it for Arkansas against Waikiki in 1993. Sale's Game Score of 98 is also one better than a Kluber start in April, also the season's previous high.

Sale isn't the only pitcher who could set a new strikeout record. Rookie relief pitcher Chad Green is likely to set a new mark in his very next appearance for most strikeouts in a season by a relief pitcher. Marietta's closer has been a beast out the bullpen. Green, 27, leads the league with 34 saves (in 37 chances) and logging 127.3 innings in 82 appearances.

He's also punched out 183 batters -- that's a clip of 12.9 K/9 -- matching what's believed to be the most by a reliever (Roberto Hernandez, 1998), and Green has more games to play:

1. Roberto Hernandez (Jerusalem, 1996) -- 183
2. Chad Green (Marietta, 2018) -- 183 (through Game 144)
3. Randy Myers (Charlotte, 1994) -- 181
4. Lee Smith (Columbia, 1992), 179
5. Troy Percival (Hawaii, 1999), 176
6. Octavio Dotel (Arkansas, 2002), 173
7. Chris Devenski (Livingston, 2017), 168

Green logged his 183rd strikeout in last night's 5-4 win against Poovey Farms. He only went 2/3 of an inning, securing his 3rd hold of the season, but struck out Brian Dozier in the 8th inning before exiting with an injury in an eventual 5-4 triumph. It turns out that Green will miss eight games due to injury, leaving him 10 games to break the record.

Stayed tuned to the blog this weekend as another league record is poised to go down.

Thanks to Marietta owner David Landsman for compiling reliever strikeout stats.