Braves' Spencer Strider shares interesting stat with MLB legend

When Spencer Strider took the mound for Friday’s matchup against the San Francisco Giants, it was the 45th start of his career. He went seven innings, allowed one run on one hit and struck out 10 batters.

It was his second-best start in terms of game score. Against the Giants, he received a game score of 84, just seven points behind his best performance of the year, a 91-game score on April 24 against the Miami Marlins, where he pitched eight innings while striking out 13. 

The 10 strikeouts brought his total on the year to 392. One notable former MLB pitcher who tallied 392 strikeouts through his first 45 career starts was Dwight “Doc” Gooden. 

Gooden pitched in MLB for 16 years, going 194-114 over 2,800 innings while striking out 2,293. His best season was his sophomore campaign, where he won the Cy Young Award with a 1.53 ERA and struck out 8.7 batters per nine innings. 

The best strikeout mark of his career was in his rookie season, where he struck out 11.4 batters per nine innings. 

As for Strider, he has had more success with the strikeout overall but tends not to be able to go as deep into games as Gooden did during his early years. Strider struck out 13.8 batters per nine during the 2022 season and leads the entire league in strikeouts per nine with 14.0 during the 2023 season. 

Strider also holds the edge on Gooden in terms of limiting walks while maintaining high strikeouts, at least in terms of ratio. In his career thus far, he is striking out 4.66 batters for every walk, while Gooden managed 2.40 strikeouts per walk for his career and only 3.88 batters per walk at his peak in 1985.