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Sale becomes 1st AL pitcher since 1999 to record 300-K season

Patrick McDermott / USA TODAY Sports

Strikeouts are up throughout baseball, but no one is quite at Chris Sale's level.

The Boston Red Sox lefty punched out 13 Baltimore Orioles batters Wednesday night to reach the 300 strikeout plateau. He's the first American League pitcher to record 300 strikeouts in a season since Pedro Martinez mowed down 313 in 1999 as a member of these very Red Sox.

He's only the second pitcher in franchise history to strike out 300, and Pedro managed it only once in Boston - he also struck out 305 with the Montreal Expos in 1997.

Joining Pedro is breathing rarefied air, and Sale said after the game that he wasn't taking his accomplishment for granted, according to the Providence Journal's Tim Britton.

"That's special. We all know that's about as good a company as you can get," Sale said. "Just appreciative of it. It's fun. Being here and hearing that name thrown around is special to me; I don't take it lightly. He's one of the best to ever step on that mound. To be in the same sentence as him is pretty crazy to me."

The AL Cy Young candidate - and potential front-runner - has recorded 191 of them away from Fenway Park, the most by any pitcher on the road in at least 104 years, according to USA TODAY's Bob Nightengale.

Sale took the mound in the eighth inning needing a single strikeout to reach the milestone. After a pair of groundouts, he struck out Ryan Flaherty looking on an 83 mph slider.

The 13-strikeout performance raised his K/9 to 12.9 on the season, which is far and away the best among qualified starting pitchers this season. Compare that to Curt Schilling, who punched out 300 batters on three different occasions but never had a K/9 higher than 11.29. Even strikeout king Nolan Ryan never recorded a K/9 as high as Sale's this season.

As to his most common victims, Sale has struck out New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge and Tampa Bay Rays slugger Steven Souza Jr. 10 times apiece.

Sale is scheduled to get at least one more start, Sept. 26 against the Toronto Blue Jays, giving him a shot at breaking Pedro's single-season franchise record of 313.

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