Braves’ Chris Sale fastest to reach 2,500 career strikeouts

PHILADELPHIA — Chris Sale became the fastest pitcher to reach 2,500 strikeouts, pitched six scoreless innings and the Atlanta Braves beat the Philadelphia Phillies 9-3 on Thursday night to split a doubleheader.

The Phillies won the afternoon game 5-4.

Sale struck out Edmundo Sosa in the sixth inning for his eighth strikeout to reach the milestone. He did it in 2,026 innings, surpassing the record of 2,107⅔ set by Randy Johnson.

“I appreciate it for what it is, but I try not to get too caught up in stuff like that right now,” Sale told reporters, according to MLB.com. “I know what our job is here. And no matter whether you have a good one or a bad one, the next one is the most important one.”

Sale became the 40th pitcher in major league history to reach 2,500 strikeouts and joined Clayton Kershaw, Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer as the only active pitchers to have reached that mark.

Sosa was the last hitter Sale faced. He allowed just two hits in six shutout innings and improved to 3-3 with a 3.06 ERA on the season.

“He’s kind of doing Hall of Fame stuff,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said of Sale. “That guy is probably as big a baseball fan as anybody, just the history of the game and the competition. He’s a ballplayer, and it’s really cool to watch.”

Austin Riley had a double, a homer and four RBIs, Ozzie Albies homered and drove in three and Luke Williams had a pair of RBIs for the Braves, who snapped a three-game losing skid.

Zack Wheeler (6-2) allowed six runs in 5⅓ innings for the Phillies, who lost for just the second time in their last 13 games.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.