Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium, the AL East rival New York Yankees and Baltimore Orioles opened a very important three-game series (GameTracker). The O's entered the game with a 31-16 record, three games behind the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East. The Yankees are 29-20 and three games behind Baltimore.
There was some history early in Tuesday's game. Gerrit Cole fanned former Yankees prospect Jorge Mateo in the second inning and became the 87th pitcher with 2,000 career strikeouts. He got there in 1,714 2/3 innings, third fastest all-time. Only Chris Sale (1,626 innings) and Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez (1,711 1/3 innings) beat Cole to the milestone.
Here is Cole's 2,000th career strikeout:
In terms of games pitched, Cole is also the third fastest to 2,000 strikeouts. He got there in 278 games, behind only Hall of Famer Randy Johnson (262 games) and the great Clayton Kershaw (277 games).
Cole began his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates and struck out 734 batters in 782 1/3 innings with the team, an 8.4 K/9 that is good but not truly elite. It wasn't until Cole was traded to the Houston Astros and revamped his pitch mix that his strikeout rate exploded. He had a 13.1 K/9 with Houston and is currently running an 11.5 K/9 with the Yankees.
Last season, Cole led baseball with 257 strikeouts and set the Yankees franchise single-season strikeout record, surpassing Ron Guidry's 248 strikeouts during his Cy Young season in 1978. Cole entered Tuesday's game with 1,998 strikeouts and 662 strikeouts as a Yankee, already a top 30 mark in franchise history.
Cole is signed through 2028 and would have to average 179 strikeouts per season between now and then to join the 3,000-strikeout club. He is a super early AL Cy Young contender, taking a 5-0 record and a 2.01 ERA into Tuesday's game.
