Last Night in Baseball: Chris Sale makes strikeout history

There is always baseball happening — almost too much baseball for one person to handle themselves.

That’s why we’re here to help, though, by sifting through the previous days’ games, and figuring out what you missed, but shouldn’t have. Here are all the best moments from last night in Major League Baseball:

Sale speeds to 2,500 Ks

Chris Sale, while facing the Phillies on Thursday in the second game of a doubleheader, recorded the 2,500th strikeout of his career. Sale pitched six shutout innings, scattering a pair of hits and three walks while striking out eight batters — the last of which let him finish the day at exactly 2,500.

It’s notable as more than just a round number, too, as Sale is the fastest-ever pitcher to reach 2,500 punch outs, in just 2,026 career innings. He’s also just the 40th player to ever reach that many career strikeouts, which, when combined with the speed with which he got here, is incredible to consider given that he was a reliever for the White Sox for the first two years of his MLB career before transitioning to the rotation. A reliever who struck out 111 batters in 94.2 innings, sure, but still.

The list gets even shorter from here, however: when Clayton Kershaw (2,974 career Ks) gets to 3,000 strikeouts, he’ll be merely the 20th to ever get that many in an MLB career. Sale is next up among active players, at 2,500, and should be able to get there as well, so long as he can stay healthy and effective for a little bit longer. 

That’s been a question with him more often than you’d like, especially on the health side, but there’s no denying that this guy can still miss bats. He led the National League in strikeouts in 2024 en route to a Cy Young, and it was the third time he led his league. In 2017 with the Red Sox, he led the majors with 308 of them. He’s currently in sixth in 2025, despite a slow start to the year, but he’s recorded 62 strikeouts in his last 48.2 innings while posting a 1.66 ERA in that eight-start stretch, so it’s safe to say he’s in fine form once more.

Blue Jays hit 4 HRs in 12-0 victory

The Blue Jays and Athletics are playing a four-game series this weekend, and Toronto kicked things off by… well, kicking the A’s, mostly. Four home runs in a 12-0 victory is a great/terrible way to start off a series, depending on which side of things you’re on. Ernie Clement (a three-run homer), Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (two-run blast), Bo Bichette (two-run dinger) and George Springer (solo shot) were responsible for the flurry of long balls, with Athletics’ starter Jacob Lopez responsible for giving up the first two, and Anthony Maldonado the later ones.

The day went beyond those four players going yard, however: that was just eight of Toronto’s 12 runs accounted for. Clement actually added another two RBIs to the mix on a day in which he went 3-for-5 with a double on top of the homer, and Bichette added another RBI, along with a double, as well. 

What’s a little terrifying about the Jays scoring 12 runs is that they stranded nearly as many runners as they plated: they had 18 hits and five walks on the day, went 6-for-11 with runners in scoring position, and left 11 runners on the bases. So, you know. Could have been worse, A’s fans. Could have been a lot worse. Today’s a new day and all that, and maybe it’ll be better than yesterday. It would be difficult for it to get worse and all.

Fan catch

This is incredible. Ernie Clement’s aforementioned three-run homer went in and out of the glove of a young Blue Jays’ fan in attendance, which must have felt just awful. So close to the rarest of souvenirs, yet so far. When would this kid ever have the chance to catch a home run from a Blue Jays’ player, or any player, again?

Not all that long, it turns out.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s shot went to the exact same location, except this time, it stayed in the young fan’s glove. Which pumped them up just a bit, as you can see. Now there’s a story that no one will believe years from now — good thing it was caught by the cameras, huh?

Nationals 7-run 10th

You get into extra innings, and anything could happen. It’s like a brand new ballgame, only without starting pitchers. The Mariners and Nationals went into extras in Seattle on Thursday, tied 2-2, and things started out innocently enough. The Nats scored on a sac fly to deep right, giving them a 3-2 lead courtesy Daylen Lile’s first RBI in the majors. Ho-hum, such is the way of things when you start a runner in scoring position in the 10th. 

And then, the Nats kept scoring. CJ Abrams doubled. James Wood was intentionally walked. Nathaniel Lowe then scored Abrams with a single to left, then the bases were loaded on a fielder’s choice gone wrong. Luis Garcia Jr. would double, scoring two, then Josh Bell would homer, putting the Nationals up 9-2. 

The Mariners would get one back in the bottom half of the 10th to make it a 9-3 Washington victory, in a series that just kind of went like that. The Mariners won the first game on Tuesday, 9-1, then the Nationals blanked Seattle 9-0 on Wednesday. We should have known all along that one of these teams would plate nine runs again on Thursday, even if things were slow on that front for 9/10ths of the game.

Simpson doesn’t need a hit to score

Chandler Simpson is fast. If you’ve seen him run before, you already know this. On Thursday, he drew a walk against Astros’ pitcher Ryan Gusto, and then stole second base a few pitches later. 

Not satisfied with one theft, Simpson went for a second just three pitches later: on another low breaking ball, he took off for third, and the throw ended up off-target and in left field. Simpson picked himself up — once the diving third baseman, Isaac Paredes, was no longer on top of him — and headed home on an E2.

The Rays would win, 13-3, so it’s not as if Simpson’s run happened in a moment where they absolutely had to create a run out of practically nothing. But he showed he could do it, through the patience to draw a walk, waiting for the right pitches to go on to give himself an edge, and being enough of a nuisance to everyone that, eventually, there was a rushed throw, and a chance to score. That’s going to come in real handy someday.

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