Bauer notches 1,000th career strikeout
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CLEVELAND -- Just call him Mr. 1000.
There’s no secret that Trevor Bauer loves his strikeouts, and on Thursday, the 28-year-old right-hander reached a big milestone, fanning his 1,000th career batter. He becomes the 54th active pitcher to hit the mark.
Bauer entered Thursday’s 14-7 victory over the Orioles with 998 strikeouts, before punching out Trey Mancini on an 80.2-mph slider in the first and Roberto Nunez on a 79.4-mph slider in the fourth to attain the elusive 1,000.
But the milestone was the lone highlight of the righty’s evening, as he left the game after a season-low five innings and matched his career-high in earned runs with seven. In a season where he’s averaged 10.9 strikeouts per nine innings in his first nine starts, he recorded just three on Thursday.
“I’m not exactly sure what the biggest problem I have right now is,” Bauer said. “I feel like I’m throwing good pitches and guys are doing a good job of taking balls. My out-of-zone chase rate is really low. First-pitch strike percentage is way down. So when I get to a 2-2 count or something, I’m getting there 1-0 or 2-0 or I’m in some of those deep counts, like I’m getting in 3-2 counts after 3-0, 3-1, 3-2, it’s a lot different.
“I’ve got to be better. My teammates, the organization, the fans depend on me to go out there and be better than I am right now and I need to live up those expectations.”
He was able to reach the mark in 967 career innings, averaging 9.31 punchouts per nine innings in that span. With 17 of his strikeouts coming in Arizona in 2012, Bauer is just 16 away from becoming the 13th pitcher in club history to record 1,000 strikeouts as an Indian, joining Corey Kluber (1,461) and Carlos Carrasco (1,189).