Tyler Glasnow has been a strikeout machine for the Los Angeles Dodgers, and had his best total to date on April 9 when he tied a career-high with 14 of them against the Minnesota Twins.
It was the type of start that the Dodgers were envisioning when they made the move to acquire him via trade and lock him up long term in the offseason.
Glasnow has been highly-effective overall for the Dodgers, posting a 2.72 ERA across 43 innings. However, he was on another level in his start against the Twins.
This impressive strikeout total was something that Glasnow was very aware of in the moment because he keeps track of his total during a game, according to Bill Plunkett of the Southern California News Group:
“I always do. I’d lie if I said I didn’t. I had them tallied up, for sure,” he said of keeping a mental count of his Ks, something he has done since he was a kid.
“Yeah, it’s like subconscious at this point. I think you’re unaware of it. Sometimes I’ll be off a bit but for the most part I kinda know, yeah.”
Glasnow has found a lot of success this year with his fastball, and against the Twins, it accounted for eight of his strikeouts, including his first six.
Glasnow also used his breaking balls to great effect, as his slider and curveball accounted for six of his 14 strikeouts against the Twins. But his command has also been sharp, and combined with his elite stuff, he was nearly unhittable.
So far this season, the right-hander has 53 strikeouts in 43 innings, providing the Dodgers with swing and miss from the top of their rotation that they’ve sorely lacked in recent years.
Tyler Glasnow’s historically dominant outing in Minnesota
Glasnow’s performance wasn’t just impressive because of his large strikeout total, it was the efficiency and precision with which he carved up the Twins’ lineup as he only needed 88 pitches to get through his seven innings of work. In fact, it was historically good even.
Low pitch counts and high strikeout numbers usually have an inverse relationship. However, Glasnow was able to keep his pitch count so low because 10 of his 14 K’s came in four pitches or less.
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