If you’re looking for a silver lining in the New York Yankees’ 7-3 loss Tuesday to the Toronto Blue Jays, try this on for size: Yankees pitchers struck out nine Blue Jays batters.
That gives the Yankees pitching staff 130 strikeouts on the season, setting a new MLB record for most team whiffs through the first 11 games of the season.
Both the 2018 Yankees and 2020 Cincinnati Reds recorded 129 strikeouts through 11 games.
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Starter Jameson Taillon struck out three in 3.2 innings of work. Lucas Luetge followed with three K’s in 1.1 innings. Luis Cessa picked up a pair of strikeouts in two innings of work. Albert Abreu notched one strikeout in his one inning of work.
Leading the way in the strikeout department for the Yankees is ace Gerrit Cole, who had eight strikeouts in Monday’s 3-1 win. According to Yankees PR, Cole “has recorded at least seven strikeouts in each of his last 12 regular-season starts (since 8/8/20-Game 1), the longest such stretch by a Yankees pitcher in franchise history.” The Yankees say the previous record was seven games, done five times, “most recently by Nathan Eovaldi from 8/19/15-4/20/16.”
Cole is tied with the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Trevor Bauer and Tampa Bay Rays’ Tyler Glasnow for second in the majors with 29 strikeouts this season. Cleveland Indians ace Shane Bieber, the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner, leads the majors with 35 strikeouts. Bieber collected 11 strikeouts Tuesday in the Indians’ 2-0 win over the Chicago White Sox.
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