On August 22, 1989, Nolan Ryan threw a 96 mph fastball to strike out Rickey Henderson — the 5,000th strikeout of his career. Over the course of the game, Ryan struck out 13 batters and gave up only five hits, but still ended up losing to Oakland 2-0. To this day, Nolan Ryan remains the only pitcher in Major League Baseball history to strike out 5,000 batters (5714 total). Coming in second is Randy Johnson, with 4,875 strikeouts.
Reblogged this on She's Caught in a Rundown and commented:
Fun baseball history fact, because I always loved Nolan Ryan and this was a crazy number to reach.