sweet! what a game tonight. we beat johan, fausto pitched great, hafner had another bomb, and mike rouse finally got his first base hit, and it was with a runner in scoring position. oh yeah, we are in first place in the division.

last night when watching the tribe game, my budy sean and i were discussing the greatness of randy johnson. we were discussing how many times he had 20 strikouts. i will copy and paste the e-mail i sent sean last night after he left.

dude,

that was a trick question. randy has never had a 20 strikeout game. he had 19 twice, both times with seatle, in the same year (1997). he shares the record for lefties with steve carlton.

clemens and kerry wood share the record for righties, with 20. roger did it twice.

randy holds the record for a reliever, with 16. he did it when he was with u guys.

randy shares the record with nolan ryan for the most 10+ strikeout games in a season. he had 23 such games in 1999, 2000, and 2001.

if you want to verify the data:

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/recbooks/rb_strik.shtml

i was satisfied with my search, and went no further the the all knowing baseball almanac. late this afternoon, sean calls me up to tell me he just watched the d'backs pregame show where they mentioned his 20 strikeout game with the d'backs. i am in disbelief, but searched the web again to prove him wrong. well, surprise surprise, sean was correct. here is my e-mail letting him know so.

dude,

the first place i looked (wikipedia, the first time i ever checked it out), i found this:


Struck out 20 batters in a game on May 8, 2001 against Cincinnati Reds; Johnson recorded all 20 strikeouts in the first nine innings, but because the game went into extra innings, it was not categorized by MLB as an "official" 20-strikeout game (Tom Cheney's 16-inning, 21-strikeout game is also listed separately). Baseball has since reversed itself on the game, and now lists Johnson with Roger Clemens and Kerry Wood as 20-K pitchers.


20 k's is 20k's, the way i see it, complete game or not. i can understand for a non no, but strikeouts are an individual accomplishment that should not be tied to a complete game.

it also said this about his 'relief appearance':

Johnson's Game 7 relief appearance was his second of the 2001 season; on July 19, a game against the Padres was delayed by two electrical explosions in Qualcomm Stadium. When the game resumed the following day, Johnson stepped in as the new pitcher and racked up 16 strikeouts in 7 innings, technically setting the record for the most strikeouts in a relief stint.

randy holds many other pitching records, both strikeout related and not. too bad he got crushed tonight in his '07 debut against the padres.