Yu Darvish racked up 14 strikeouts in 7.2 innings against the Diamondbacks yesterday, giving him an MLB-leading 105 on the season. Darvish totaled 221 strikeouts in 191.1 innings last year, which is a ton, but the Rangers right-hander taken his bat-missing to another level this year.
Darvish leads MLB with 12.7 strikeouts per nine innings, which would be baseball’s highest strikeout rate since Randy Johnson averaged 13.4 strikeouts per nine innings in 2001.
Darvish is on pace for 315 strikeouts in 33 starts, which would be the most since Johnson (334) and Curt Schilling (316) in 2002.
Darvish is on track to become just the third 26-year-old in baseball history to reach 300 strikeouts, joining Nolan Ryan with 383 in 1973 and Rube Waddell with 302 in 1903.
And as a Minnesotan, this is the most painful stat: Darvish has 105 strikeouts in 11 starts this season. Minnesota’s entire starting rotation has a grand total of 122 strikeouts in 48 starts.