Chris Sale Strikes Out No. 2,744, Moves to No. 6 All-Time Among Lefties at Age 37

Chris Sale keeps rewriting his own résumé. The Atlanta Braves left-hander recorded his 2,744th career strikeout Wednesday against the Cincinnati Reds, moving him past a group of legends into the No. 6 spot among left-handed pitchers all-time, according to Newsweek. Only Mickey Lolich, Clayton Kershaw, CC Sabathia, Steve Carlton and Randy Johnson have more strikeouts from the left side.

Overall, Sale now sits 26th on MLB's all-time strikeout list. His next target is Cy Young, the pitcher the award is named after, whose career strikeout total Sale is closing in on.

The numbers behind this season are exceptional for a 37-year-old. Sale entered Wednesday's start with a 2.18 ERA, his best mark since 2018, and 190 strikeouts across 157 innings, according to Newsweek. He made his 10th All-Star team this year and is considered the likely runner-up for the National League Cy Young Award.

Sale currently leads all of MLB in home runs allowed per nine innings and strikeout-to-walk ratio, and he leads the National League in walks per nine innings, per Newsweek. His fastball still averages 96.1 mph, well above the league average of 93.6 for left-handers. In August he threw his first complete-game shutout since 2019, against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Zoom out on his career and the ratio gets even more remarkable. Sale has a 5.35 strikeout-to-walk ratio over 16 MLB seasons, the best of any pitcher with more than 1,000 career innings pitched, according to Newsweek.

A Discrepancy in the Numbers

There's a wrinkle in the numbers across sources. Newsweek put Sale's strikeout total at 2,744 as of Wednesday's game against Cincinnati. A separate report from WFMD, citing coverage tied to Justin Verlander's career, listed Sale's total as 2,779 strikeouts, including his 190 this season. Both figures can't be describing the same moment in time. The gap likely reflects different snapshots during Sale's active outing Wednesday or a discrepancy in when each figure was pulled, since strikeout totals change mid-game. Either number puts Sale within realistic range of the 3,000-strikeout club, a group only 20 pitchers in MLB history have ever joined.

The Vanishing Workhorse Starter

Sale's milestone comes the same week as a broader story about the vanishing workhorse starter. Tigers legend Justin Verlander is set to make the final start of his 21-year Hall of Fame career this weekend, according to WFMD's Outkick-sourced report. Verlander finishes with 266 wins, tied for 37th all-time with Bob Feller and Eppa Rixey, and will not reach the 300-win plateau once considered the benchmark for pitching greatness.

WFMD's reporting argues no pitcher may ever hit 300 wins again. Modern bullpens, earlier pitching changes, and injuries tied to velocity-chasing have shortened starters' careers across the board. Gerrit Cole, at 35 with 162 wins, would need to average 20 wins a year through age 42 to get there. Max Scherzer, 42, has 224. Neither is likely to get close.

Strikeouts tell a similar story of scarcity. Verlander finishes with 3,554 career strikeouts, Scherzer has 3,543, and both belong to the 20-man, 3,000-strikeout club. Sale, at 190 strikeouts this season and deep into his late 30s, is one of the few active pitchers with a realistic shot at joining them, per WFMD. Cole, with 2,374 strikeouts and a track record of roughly 239 a season when healthy, is the other name on that short list.

What separates Sale from the pack isn't just talent. A pitcher with his injury history—he's made multiple trips to the injured list over the years—is still striking out batters at an elite clip and posting his best ERA in eight years at an age when most starters have already lost a step or retired outright. The Braves are counting on that version of Sale to anchor their rotation as they push for a second World Series title since 2021.

The open question now is durability. Sale needs roughly 256 more strikeouts to reach 3,000, a total he could approach next season if he stays healthy. Whether he gets there will depend on whether his arm, at 37 going on 38, holds up the way it has all year.