The reigning American League Cy Young award winner came into tonight’s start without a win on the season and many nationally asking if 2014 was a fluke. He left tonight’s start with 18 strike outs and just two base runners allowed, the first pitcher in baseball history to perform such a feat. There have been great strike out performances (24 other pitchers have struck out 18 in a nine inning game, the last to do so being Ben Sheets in 2004) and there have been great games as far as efficiency is concerned, but never before has a pitcher combined the two with such finesse. Unfortunately, Corey Kluber wasn’t allowed to complete his effort as Brad Mills, filling in after Terry Francona was ejected, went to the closer Cody Allen for the ninth instead.
Kluber did at least finally get his first win of the season after coming tantalizingly close to the first Indians no hitter since Len Barker threw a perfect game in 1981. Things didn’t start out perfect as Kluber hit the third batter of the game, Matt Holliday, on the elbow, but he quickly settled in to a rhythm and consistently pounded the outside of the strike zone with his unhittable four seam fastball. Holliday was pulled from the game the following inning and the retaliation for the hit batter was what cost Francona a chance to see history later on.
Kluber didn’t allow his second and final base runner until the seventh inning when Jhonny Peralta hit a single up the middle to end the no hit bid. The Peralta single was the second and last ground ball allowed by Kluber as he recorded every other out via strike out or fly (none of which were hit well enough to make an outfielder turn around). Between the third and fourth innings, Kluber struck out all six batters faced and struck out the side in the seventh as well, working around the single. In the sixth and eight innings he struck out two a piece, adding to his grand total.
Making the feat even more impressive were two factors of difficulty for Kluber heading into the game, first that the St. Louis Cardinals were and still are the best team in all of baseball and second, that the Indians refuse to score runs whenever Kluber is on the mound. Not only do the Cardinals lead the Majors in wins and winning percent, they are not big on the strike outs. Even after his performance (plus a bonus K from Allen in the ninth), the Cardinals rank sixth in baseball for fewest strike outs offensively (224), trailing only the Rockies and Braves in the National League (the Indians are second in baseball with 202). This was not against the Cubs, who average more than ten strike outs per game, this was against the cream of the crop who strike out less than seven. Removing tonight’s performance, they had struck out just 205 times in 31 games.
The second point of contention facing Kluber was the Indians offense. While they have kicked things up a notch recently, that has only been in games without the Tribe ace. Overall, the Indians have scored 139 runs (4.34 runs per game) on the season, good for 17th in the league, but with Kluber on the mound, that number drops drastically to just 2.5 runs per game including the two scored tonight. For all other pitchers, the Indians score 4.96 runs per game, a problem that has left the Indians cyborg hurler in tough spots before. In two of his first three starts, Kluber flirted with no hitters and eventually gave up just three hits each time and once he struck out ten, but he had to do this one nearly by himself to earn his first win of the year.
Fittingly, Kluber’s final K on the night was against the former Indian and former strike out king Mark Reynolds. He went down swinging to end the eighth, something he did in each of his three at bats. Number nine hitter, Peter Bourjos, met this feat as well with Holliday being the only batter not to strike out for the Cards. Six other Cardinals struck out at twice, including Holliday’s replacement Pete Kozma, who only batted twice and only Matt Adams fell victim a single time.
Rise of the machine: Dominant #Klubot fans 18. http://t.co/pcbSF4eShM @Headshoulders #Whiff pic.twitter.com/4ll4PBpZy7
— MLB (@MLB) May 14, 2015
While nationally, his strike out total may not be among the top ever, in Cleveland he tied the immortal Bob Feller for the most in a nine inning game (Luis Tiant had 19 in an extra inning affair) and those 18 K’s pushed him back to the top of the Major League leaderboard for the 2015 season. Last year, the Indians set a record for most strike outs thrown in a season in Major League history and Kluber broke into the top six in Indians history with 269.
With 528 career strike outs in just 503 innings, Kluber is also at the top of the Indians record books in career K/9 (9.45) at least momentarily surpassing Herb Score (9.35) as the top starting pitcher and behind just Paul Shuey (10.02) among Indians pitchers with at least 200 innings.
Corey Kluber strikes people out. He strikes out Twins, Royals and Cardinals indiscriminately. He strikes out people a lot and if his 18 tonight proves anything, he is just getting started. For those who thought his career was over as a one year wonder, the Klubot just hit reset. And he’s coming for you next.
