Chris Sale Gets 300th Strikeout as Red Sox Clinch Post Season Berth

Boston Red Sox lefthander Chris Sale pitched eight shutout innings and struck out 13 Orioles as the Red Sox beat Baltimore 9-0 on September 20th. Boston improved to 88-64 on the season, and clinched at least a Wild Card playoff berth due to the win and the Los Angeles Angels loss against the Cleveland Indians.

The 13 strikeouts gave Sale 300 for the season. In the age before so many bullpen specialists, 300 strikeouts, while not an every season occurrence, was at least somewhat more common than it has been in recent years. The last time it happened in the American League was by Boston’s Pedro Martinez back in 1999. The future Hall of Famer struck out 313 that season. The last time it happened in the National League was 2015, when the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw struck out 301. Before that, Randy Johnson struck out 334 in 2002; that same year, his Arizona Diamondbacks’ teammate Curt Shilling struck out 316.