Cleveland Indians pitchers are striking out a record number of batters

Friday night in Kansas City, Carlos Carrasco recorded 15 strikeouts in a one-hit shutout. Corey Kluber struck out 18 batters in a game earlier this season. The two of them are the first teammates to each record 15+ strikeouts in a game during the same season since Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling with the 2002 Diamondbacks.

Carrasco also reached 200 strikeouts for the season, a mark Kluber reached a couple weeks back. It's the 59th time in MLB history teammates have done that, and the third time in Indians history. (Sam McDowell and Luis Tiant both did it in 1967 and 1968.) That's rare, but not remarkably so. However, Danny Salazar is currently at 186 strikeouts, putting him just 14 away from reaching 200 himself. He'll have two starts to try and get those last 14, and if he does the Indians will have a trio of 200-strikeout pitchers. Only three teams in history have ever done that: The 1967 Twins, the 1969 Angels, and the 2013 Tigers.

Carrasco (10.51), Kluber (9.95), and Salazar (9.60) are each also striking out more than 9.5 batters per 9 innings. No team has ever had three pitchers do that, and the 2013 Tigers are the only American League to ever have even two pitchers do it.

Strikeout percentage is a slightly different metric (just as it sounds, it is simply the percentage of batters a pitcher faces, whom he strikes out), but one I like a little more than K/9**, and Carlos Carrasco is currently at 29.6%, which would set a new franchise record, just ahead of Sam McDowell's 29.1% from 1965. Meanwhile, Kluber is at 27.7%, which would be 5th in team history, and Salazar is at 26.1%, which would rank 8th.

**I like K% more than K/9, because if two pitchers both strike out 7 batters in 7 innings, one of them while allowing 9 hits and 3 walks, and the other while allowing 1 hit and 0 walks, K/9 will rank them equally, whereas K% will score the second pitcher higher, because his strikeouts came while facing fewer batters.

The starting rotation as a whole has a K% of 24.5, which would also be a new MLB record.

For what's left of the season, I want to see the rotation maining that, I want Carrasco to keep up that franchise-record K%, I want Salazar get those 14 strikeouts and join his teammates with 200+, and I want Kluber record even just one more strikeout, which would give him 500 over the last two years combined, something no American League pitcher has done since Johan Santana in 2004 and 2005.

I want.