Rookie pitcher Spencer Strider continues to turn heads and miss bats this season for the defending champion Atlanta Braves.
On Thursday night, Strider struck out 12 batters over six innings faced against a strong St. Louis Cardinals lineup.
Through the first three innings, all nine of Strider’s outs recorded were strikeouts. He became the first Braves pitcher to ever do that.
Strider is also the first Braves pitcher in the modern era to strike out at least 10 batters in consecutive outings (he struck out 11 over six innings vs the Cincinnati Reds in his last outing).
He’s also the first MLB rookie in the modern era with at least 11 strikeouts and two fewer hits allowed in consecutive starts (he allowed two hits vs the Cardinals and one hit vs the Reds).
On the season, Strider has a 2.60 ERA and 1.83 FIP over 65 2/3 innings (19 games, eight starts). He’s striking out a ridiculous 13.98 batters per nine innings.
And the eye test is every bit as impressive as the numbers, with Strider routinely hitting 100-plus mph on the radar gun (he entered Thursday *averaging* 98.4 mph on his fastball).
The baseball world has had plenty of reaction to Strider’s latest strikeout-filled gem.
The last MLB pitchers to strike out 9 batters in the first 3 innings:
Spencer Strider on 7/7/22
Pablo López on 7/11/21
Aaron Nola on 6/25/21
Anthony DeSclafani on 6/23/19
Corbin Burnes on 3/31/19From 2008 – 2018, 8 pitchers accomplished this feat. https://t.co/0vRGnZOxeT
— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) July 8, 2022
https://twitter.com/drivelinebases/status/1545212184786976768
In this I point out that Strider has the best Stuff+ in baseball… even looking at only his starts. Giddyap https://t.co/WuaZMb5uyY
— Eno Sarris (@enosarris) July 8, 2022
So Strider just retired 9 of the first 12 batters he saw all via the strikeout.
Can we give him NL ROY yet?
— Alex Fast (@AlexFast8) July 8, 2022