ARLINGTON, Texas — Max Scherzer moved into 11th place on baseball’s career strikeout list, getting his 3,343rd on Sunday to pass Hall of Fame knuckleballer Phil Niekro.
Scherzer, making his fourth start for the AL West-leading Texas Rangers since getting traded from the New York Mets, struck out Milwaukee Brewers second baseman Brice Turang in the third inning. It was Scherzer’s third strikeout of the game.
The three-time Cy Young Award winner, who is in his 16th season, is baseball’s active strikeout leader and was pitching in his 453rd game. Niekro threw in 864 big league games.
Greg Maddux is 10th on the career list with 3,371 strikeouts. Maddux is the brother of Rangers pitching coach Mike Maddux.
While winning each of his first three starts for the Rangers, Scherzer struck out 26 batters in 20 innings. He was only the fourth pitcher in the big leagues since 1901 with at least 20 innings pitched while allowing no more than four runs and striking out at least 26 batters in their first three starts with a new franchise.