SF Giants: Carlos Rodón sets two franchise records for strikeouts
The SF Giants have a pair of new single-season strikeout records. Carlos Rodón set two new records in his start on Friday against the Cubs.
Rodón's ninth strikeout in the outing gave him the new franchise single-season strikeout record for a pitcher in their first season with the team. Then, when Rodón recorded his tenth strikeout of the day, he set a new record for outings in a season with double-digit Ks.
Sam Jones held the previous franchise record for strikeouts in a player's first season with the Giants. Jones struck out 209 hitters in 1959 in 270.2 innings pitched. Jones led the league in ERA that season and finished second in National League Cy Young voting. Rodón needed less than 170 innings to match Jones' strikeout total this season.
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Rodón was tied with Jason Schmidt (2004) and Tim Lincecum (2009) for the single-season record for double-digit strikeout games with nine. He now is alone atop the leaderboard with 10 such starts this season and still has a chance to have even more.
Rodón has been fantastic this season with the Giants. After signing a two-year, $44 million contract with San Francisco this offseason, he emerged as one of the best starters in the National League. Entering Friday, he had 201 strikeouts in 157.1 innings pitched alongside a 2.92 ERA and similarly excellent ERA estimators (2.82 xERA, 2.33 FIP, and 3.03 xFIP).
Carlos Rodón is expected to opt out of his contract this offseason and become a free agent. We took a look at how much it could cost the SF Giants to keep him in San Francisco earlier this week. He only further solidified his market on Friday.
