Chris Sale Becomes Fastest Pitcher To Reach Strikeout Milestone

Forty pitchers have struck out 2,500 batters in the history of baseball, including Hall of Fame icons like Walter Johnson, to very good compilers like A.J. Burnett.

Atlanta Braves star pitcher Chris Sale has joined the club faster than any other pitcher who has struck out 2,500 batters before.

Sale struck out Philadelphia Phillies third baseman Eduardo Sosa swinging with two outs in the sixth inning Thursday evening to register the 2,500th strikeout of his career, and he did so in just 2,026 innings, which is the fewest number of innings to reach the historic milestone ever in the history of baseball. The Phillies won the game 5-4, but Sale made history.

“I appreciate it for what it is, but I try not to get too caught up in stuff like that right now,” Sale told reporters, according to MLB.com. “I know what our job is here. And no matter whether you have a good one or a bad one, the next one is the most important one.”

Sale ranks second only to Blake Snell on the all-time strikeouts per nine innings leaderboards, which makes Sale an arguable candidate to reach the Hall of Fame.

Sale was one of the best pitchers of the last decade as he strung together seven straight All-Star appearances for the Chicago White Sox and Boston Red Sox from 2012 to 2018.

Last year, Sale made an out-of-nowhere return to his All-Star form with the Braves as he won the Triple Crown with 18 wins, 225 strikeouts and a 2.38 ERA, which led him to finally win a Cy Young award, which has been eluding him for years.

“He’s kind of doing Hall of Fame stuff,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said of Sale. “That guy is probably as big a baseball fan as anybody, just the history of the game and the competition. He’s a ballplayer, and it’s really cool to watch.”

This year, Sale is 2-3 with a 3.36 ERA and 78 strikeouts in 61 2/3 innings pitched.