No team in baseball is hotter right now than the Red Sox. Boston outlasted the Rays in 10 innings Sunday for their 11th straight win (Red Sox 3, Rays 2), which lowered their magic number to clinch the AL East to two.
Five Red Sox pitchers combined to strike out 23 Rays in 10 innings Sunday, including 21 in the first nine innings. At one point from the fourth through seventh innings, starter Eduardo Rodriguez and reliever Heath Hembree combined to strike out 11 (!) straight Tampa batters. Here is Rodriguez's 10th strikeout of the game:
That strikeout was No. 3 of the 11 straight. Rodriguez had the first six strikeouts of that stretch and Hembree the next five. Logan Forsythe ended the strikeout streak with a leadoff single against Matt Barnes in the eighth.
The 11 straight strikeouts are indeed a major-league record. The previous record was 10.
The Red Sox' 11 consecutive strikeouts before that Forsythe hit breaks Tom Seaver and the Mets' major league record of 10 straight Ks, 1970
— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) September 25, 2016
Hall of Famer Tom Seaver struck out 10 straight batters all by himself. That doesn't make it any less impressive that Rodriguez and Hembree combined to strike out 11 straight, of course. Major-league hitters are very good! Setting down 11 straight on strike three is pretty amazing.
The 23 total strikeouts also gives the Red Sox the record for most strikeouts in a 10-inning game. Their 21 strikeouts in nine innings would have also been a record had the game not continued.
