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10 historic performances from 2016
- Updated: December 28, 2016
The long and winding road of 2016 is coming to an end, but that doesn’t mean we can’t take one last look back at an incredible year in baseball.
Every award imaginable for 2016 has already been handed out. Instead of passing out even more hardware, here are 10 of the statistics and milestones that made us shake our head in wonder this past season:
Max Scherzer, Nationals: 20 strikeouts on May 11 vs. DET With 20 strikeouts against the Tigers, Scherzer tied Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson and Kerry Wood for the most strikeouts thrown in a nine-inning game — and he did it in arguably the most dominant fashion of the four. Scherzer tossed an efficient 119 pitches, including 96 for strikes and only 23 called balls, giving him the fewest total pitches, fewest number of balls and highest percentage of strikes in a 20-strikeout game.
Zach Britton, Orioles: 0.54 ERA, 38 hits allowed You may have heard that Britton finished 2016 with an almost unfathomable 0.54 ERA, the lowest in Major League history of any pitcher who’s tossed at least 65 innings in a season. Even when accounting for the luck that might have factored into Britton’s historic ERA, only 16 pitchers in history have allowed fewer hits than the 38 he let by (min. 65 innings) — all of them doing so in the last 22 seasons.
Clayton Kershaw, Dodgers: 1.69 ERA, 11 walks, 15.64 strikeout-to-walk ratio Though he finished 13 innings shy of qualifying for the ERA title, Kershaw’s 1.69 mark nonetheless gives him three seasons in his career with a sub-2.00 ERA and at least 100 innings pitched. In doing so, Kershaw joined a pitcher he’s so often compared to, Sandy Koufax, as the only pitchers in the Live Ball Era (1920-present) with at least three sub-2.00 ERA, 100-inning seasons.
But perhaps even more impressive was Kershaw’s impeccable control. The southpaw finished with 172 strikeouts compared to just 11 walks, giving him a …
