There are 94 pitchers in major league history with 2,000 strikeouts. Jacob deGrom got there faster than 93 of them.
The Texas Rangers right-hander needed eight pitches Thursday night to reach the moment. He struck out Abimelec Ortiz on a slider Thursday night for No. 2,000, two batters into a game against the Washington Nationals. He reached 2,000 Ks in 1,661 career innings. Only Chris Sale, at 1,626 innings in 2019, needed fewer.
DeGrom passed Yu Darvish (1,697⅓ innings), Pedro Martinez, who got there in 1,711⅓ innings, and Randy Johnson, who needed 1,733⅓, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. If you measure it by games, it is nearly as lopsided. Thursday was deGrom’s 272nd big league appearance, all of them starts. Johnson needed 262 games to hit 2,000 strikeouts. Nobody else has done it in fewer than 277.
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Sale was 30 at the time he reached 2,000 strikeouts and Clayton Kershaw was 29. DeGrom just turned 38 in June.
The two-time Cy Young Award winner in 2018-19 had a late start. DeGrom was a shortstop the first two years of college and drafted after converting to pitching in 2010. He was a ninth-round pick who blew out his elbow six starts into his professional career. He had Tommy John in 2010 and missed all of 2011. He didn’t make it to the majors until a month before his 26th birthday.
He has also been saddled with injuries in MLB. He made 31 or more starts in each season from 2017 through 2019 and pitched to a 2.53 ERA across 622⅓ innings. He made 32 starts in 2018 alone. Then came the injuries, and the Tommy John surgery in June 2023, 13 years after the first one. He made just 35 starts total from 2021-24.
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No. 10. T-Mobile Park, Seattle: This ballpark fits perfectly in the Northwest with the nearby mountains, skyline and water. It features an “umbrella-style” retractable roof that doesn’t enclose the park, only stopping the rain, while enabling fans to enjoy the beautiful outdoors.
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No. 10. T-Mobile Park, Seattle: This ballpark fits perfectly in the Northwest with the nearby mountains, skyline and water. It features an “umbrella-style” retractable roof that doesn’t enclose the park, only stopping the rain, while enabling fans to enjoy the beautiful outdoors.
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No. 9. Camden Yards, Baltimore: Meet the godfather, with its famous B&O Warehouse. This is the original retro-classic ballpark that not only dramatically influenced the look of new stadiums, but changed the fabric of some major cities. Denver, Cleveland, San Francisco and San Diego followed its lead and built downtown ballparks that completely invigorated growth.
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No. 8. Coors Field, Denver: The team may stink but the ballpark is so beautiful and the vibe is so cool that it’s become a destination on its own. There’s a purple row of seats signifying the mile-high altitude, and the bullpen could be mistaken for a forest with its trees and running stream. The right-field upper-deck is the hottest bar in Denver.
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No. 7. Dodgers Stadium, Los Angeles: This is the most serene setting in baseball, nestled into the hillside of Chavez Ravine. It has a view of the San Gabriel Mountains beyond the outfield, and downtown Los Angeles behind home plate. It’s hard to believe it was built in 1962 and even though it holds 56,000 fans, it still feels intimate.
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No. 6. Oracle Park, San Francisco: This ballpark has the second-best view in baseball behind PNC Park with its bay backdrop and splash-down hits in McCovey Cove, but only if you happen to sit in the upper deck. The park is already showing its age and its concourses are narrow and cramped, making it difficult to move around, with the Giants already out-growing the place and badly needing more space.
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No. 5. Petco Park, San Diego: This gorgeous park doesn’t quite have the stunning views as Pittsburgh or San Francisco, but it’s pretty darn close. The architecture is beautiful and the old Western Metal Company warehouse in left-field gives it a retro look. It also happens to be located in the heart of the lively Gaslamp Quarter in downtown San Diego.
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No. 4. Target Field, Minneapolis: This may be the most impressive urban design in baseball on its downtown eight-acre site with freeways and trains outside the park, and warehouses to the left. It also has an ultra-modern look inside, with a 360-degree open concourse, that celebrates the club’s glorious history. Its nod to the retro look is the iconic neon Minnie and Paul home-run sign featuring two ballplayers shaking hands over the Mississippi River representing the Twin Cities.
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No 3. PNC Park, Pittsburgh: The most gorgeous ballpark in America. Forget the game on the field. You want to be sitting in the upper deck taking in the view of the Clemente Bridge, the Pittsburgh skyline and the Allegheny River. It’s magnificent.
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No. 2. Wrigley Field, Chicago: There’s not a more beautiful sight than walking into the ballpark and taking your first look at that beautiful green grass, the ivy on the walls and the iconic scoreboard in center field. Taking in a Friday afternoon game, hitting Murphy Bleachers afterward, and enjoying the Chicago nightlife is utopia for any baseball fan.
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No. 1 Fenway Park, Boston: No ballpark in America has the romantic feel or the unique quirks of Fenway Park, from the Green Monster to Pesky’s Pole. It’s not a baseball game, but a religious experience watching games at Fenway.
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When he was healthy, his strikeout rate was among the tops in the game. His strikeout percentage is 30.5 for his career.
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This season has been deGrom’s messiest of any “healthy stretch.” He entered Thursday night’s game at 8-8 with a 3.95 ERA and a 98 ERA+. Both are career worsts. The fastball still averages better than 97 mph.
He’s had a left hip and glute issue nagging him since the All-Star break, and it is why manager Skip Schumaker pulled him after five innings and 88 pitches against Baltimore on Aug. 8, a night deGrom still struck out nine and gave up one run. Five days later he left his start in Anaheim after just two innings with what the Rangers labeled triceps fatigue. He had an MRI that came back clean and he threw two bullpens to gear up for this night.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jacob deGrom hits 2,000 strikeouts. Only one man got there faster.
