ATLANTA — Pittsburgh Pirates veteran Aroldis Chapman earned a spot in Main League Baseball historical past on Saturday by passing Billy Wagner for essentially the most profession strikeouts by a left-handed reliever.
Chapman, 36, struck out Travis d’Arnaud and pinch-hitter Sean Murphy within the ninth inning of the Pirates’ 2-1 loss to the Atlanta Braves in 10 innings.
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Chapman tied Wagner’s document of 1,196 strikeouts by retiring d’Arnaud after which claimed the document by putting out Murphy. Chapman stared down Murphy as he walked away from the plate.
“For positive, I went on the market understanding I used to be two strikeouts away from both tying the document or go forward,” Chapman stated by means of an interpreter. “Sure, I used to be making an attempt to get that at the moment.”
Chapman stated the document is the results of “lots of laborious work by means of the years.”
Chapman walked Austin Riley with one out earlier than recovering with the back-to-back strikeouts to guard a 1-1 tie. The Braves received the sport within the tenth in opposition to Kyle Nicholas.
Coming into the sport, Chapman was tied for sixth amongst all NL relievers with 47 strikeouts this season. His two saves this season have lifted his profession whole to 323, one behind Huston Road for twentieth all-time since saves grew to become an official statistic in 1969.
Wagner completed his profession by saving 37 video games for Atlanta in 2010. He made his main league debut with Houston in 1995 and ranks eighth all-time with 422 profession saves. Mariano Rivera is first with 652.