Red Sox ace Chris Sale is fastest pitcher in MLB history to 2000 strikeouts

Boston Red Sox left-handed pitcher Chris Sale joined the 2,000 career strikeout club in fewer innings than anyone in MLB history.

Chris Sale continues to pile up the milestones during his tenure with the Boston Red Sox. The latest in his collection came Tuesday night against the Cleveland Indians when he tallied the 2,000th strikeout of his career.

The lefty punched out five batters through the first three innings, the last of which came on a slider that Oscar Mercado chased for strike three.

It only took Sale 1,626 innings to reach the milestone, surpassing Red Sox legend Pedro Martinez (1,711 1/3) for the fewest innings in major league history to reach 2,000 strikeouts.

Mercado was the 6,527th batter Sale has faced in his career, setting another MLB record for the fewest batters faced to reach 2,000 strikeouts.

In his previous appearance, Sale surpassed 200 strikeouts for the seventh consecutive season. He’s the 15th pitcher in MLB history to reach that total at least seven times.

That historic run includes one season in which Sale tallied a career-high 308 strikeouts, trailing only Pedro (313) for the single-season franchise record.

Sale’s 11.1 K/9 is the highest strikeout rate in MLB history and he also owns the best strikeout-to-walk ratio at 5.36 K/BB.

Sale finished his outing in Cleveland with 12 strikeouts, the sixth time this season he’s reached that total. He moves up to No. 82 on the all-time strikeout list with 2,007 for his career. 763 of his strikeouts have come with the Red Sox, placing him 18th in franchise history.

It’s been a season marred by inconsistency for Sale but he clearly hasn’t lost his penchant for striking batters out. He’s third in the majors in total strikeouts and owns the highest strikeout rate among qualified starters at 13.2 K/9.

David Price will be the next Red Sox pitcher to join the exclusive 2K strikeout club. He’s currently sitting at 1979. Price has already tossed over 2,000 career innings so he’s nowhere close to cracking the list of the faster pitchers to get there. Still, it’s an incredible achievement that only 83 pitchers in MLB history have done.

We’d certainly like to think Sale has a long career ahead of him considering he signed a five-year extension with the Red Sox that kicks in next year. He may not have the longevity to chase Nolan Ryan‘s career strikeout record but he’s undoubtedly on pace to become one of the greatest strikeout pitchers of all time.