Greatest Moments in Marlins History: #66 Single Season Strikeout Record

Oct 28, 2013; St. Louis, MO, USA; Boston Red Sox pitcher Ryan Dempster (46) prior to game five of the MLB baseball World Series at against the St. Louis Cardinals Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Rob Grabowski-USA TODAY Sports

Welcome back to the Greatest Moments in Marlins History. In moment 67 we talked about Jose Fernandez’s Marlins rookie single season strikeout record, but for moment 66 we are going to bring you the all time Marlins single season strikeout record. For that we take you back to 2000 and game 156 of the season when Ryan Dempster set the Marlins record.

The day was September 26, 2000 and it was Ryan’s 32^nd start of the season. He needed 6 strikeouts to tie the record and 7 to set it. Ryan got to work quickly striking out Wilton Guerrero and Vladimir Guerrero in the 1st inning. In the 2^nd inning he would get number three by striking out Geoff Blum. In the 3^rd he would get 2 more by getting Brain Schneider and Peter Bergeron. That is 5 down and 1 more to go to tie the record.

The record-tying strikeout would come in the 5^th when Bergeron came back up to bat. On a 3-2 count Bergeron struck out swinging allowing Ryan to tie Kevin Brown’s record of 205 set back in 1997. That strikeout ended the inning so we fans had to wait to see the record-breaking strikeout. We were going to have to wait for batter 7 in the 6^th inning; up to the plate came Schneider with a runner on 1^st and 2^nd. With a 2-2 count Schneider took a hack at the ball and missed! Ryan ended the inning with strikeout 206 of the season and the Marlins record!

Ryan pitched one more inning that game but no more strikeouts. He would add 3 more in his next game to bring the total to 209, making that the Marlins record. Man, all these talks about strikeouts makes me wonder where it all began. Join me next time as we take a look at another important strikeout in Marlins history.