Arizona Diamondbacks: Zack Greinke gets career strikeout 2,500 in loss to Padres

Arizona Diamondbacks starter Zack Greinke became just the 5th active pitcher and 37th pitcher all-time to reach the milestone.

Zack Greinke reached that mark by striking out Franmil Reyes in the fourth inning, but gave up a 2-run shot to Eric Hosmer that gave him the loss 3-2 to the San Diego Padres.

With 2,502 K’s he joins C.C. Sabathia (3,013 K’s), Justin Verlander (2,795 K’s), Max Scherzer (2,536 K’s) and Felix Hernandez (2,501 K’s) in the active 2,500 strikeout club.

The career leader in strikeouts is Nolan Ryan at 5,714 followed by former Arizona Diamondbacks starter Randy Johnson with 4,875.  These numbers don’t seem like they are in any danger of being broken or even someone getting close to them any time soon.

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Throughout Greinke’s career with the Kansas City Royals, Milwaukee Brewers, Los Angeles Angels, Los Angeles Dodgers and the Diamondbacks he has been the model of consistency.

So far this season he is 6-2 with a 2.89 ERA and 67 strikeouts in 11 starts.  To put that into perspective he is 193-120 with a career ERA of 3.37.  His strikeout-to-walk ratio is top-5 among pitchers with 2,500 K’s.

He has also helped his case at the plate with a career average of .225 and a .265 on-base percentage with 8 home runs and 30 RBI’s.  He has added 5 gold gloves to his trophy case in each of the last 5 seasons.  With all of this taken into account, he is one of the best all-around pitchers the game has ever seen.

Depending on how the rest of his career plays out, he’s still under contract until 2021 and taking into account his season average of 191 strikeouts, he could feasibly hit 3,000 strikeouts for his career.

If he continues after his contract is up, he’ll be 37, the sky is the limit on where he could end up on the career strikeout list.  Here’s to hoping he continues to pitch and pitch well for at least 2+ seasons and possibly a couple more after that.