SF Giants: Carlos Rodón sets two franchise records for strikeouts

SF Giants ace Carlos Rodón set a pair of single-season franchise records in his start against the Cubs on Friday.

Marc Delucchi | Sep 9, 2022

SF Giants: Carlos Rodón sets two franchise records for strikeouts /

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San Francisco Giants

The SF Giants have a pair of new single-season strikeout records. Carlos Rodón set two new records in his start on Friday against the Cubs.

Rodón's ninth strikeout in the outing gave him the new franchise single-season strikeout record for a pitcher in their first season with the team. Then, when Rodón recorded his tenth strikeout of the day, he set a new record for outings in a season with double-digit Ks.

Sam Jones held the previous franchise record for strikeouts in a player's first season with the Giants. Jones struck out 209 hitters in 1959 in 270.2 innings pitched. Jones led the league in ERA that season and finished second in National League Cy Young voting. Rodón needed less than 170 innings to match Jones' strikeout total this season.

SF Giants starter Carlos Rodón pitches during a game. (2022) — Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports

Rodón was tied with Jason Schmidt (2004) and Tim Lincecum (2009) for the single-season record for double-digit strikeout games with nine. He now is alone atop the leaderboard with 10 such starts this season and still has a chance to have even more.

Rodón has been fantastic this season with the Giants. After signing a two-year, $44 million contract with San Francisco this offseason, he emerged as one of the best starters in the National League. Entering Friday, he had 201 strikeouts in 157.1 innings pitched alongside a 2.92 ERA and similarly excellent ERA estimators (2.82 xERA, 2.33 FIP, and 3.03 xFIP).

Carlos Rodón is expected to opt out of his contract this offseason and become a free agent. We took a look at how much it could cost the SF Giants to keep him in San Francisco earlier this week. He only further solidified his market on Friday.

Published Sep 9, 2022

MARC DELUCCHI

Marc Delucchi (he/they/she) serves as the Managing Editor at Giants Baseball Insider, leading their SF Giants coverage. As a freelance journalist, he has previously covered the San Francisco Giants at Around the Foghorn and McCovey Chronicles. He also currently contributes to Niners Nation, Golden State of Mind, and Baseball Prospectus. He has previously been featured in several other publications, including SFGate, ProFootballRumors, Niners Wire, GrandStand Central, Call to the Pen, and Just Baseball. Over his journalistic career, Marc has conducted investigations into how one prep baseball player lost a college opportunity during the pandemic (Baseball Prospectus) and the rampant mistreatment of players at the University of Hawaii football program under former head coach Todd Graham (SFGate). He has also broken dozens of news stories around professional baseball, primarily around the SF Giants organization, including the draft signing of Kyle Harrison, injuries and promotions to top prospects like Heliot Ramos, and trade details in the Kris Bryant deal. Marc received a Bachelor's degree from Kenyon College with a major in economics and a minor in Spanish. During his time in college, he conducted a summer research project attempting to predict the future minor-league performance of NCAA hitters, worked as a data analyst for the school's Women's basketball team, and worked as a play-by-play announcer/color commentator for the basketball, baseball, softball, and soccer teams. He also worked as an amateur baseball scout with the Collegiate Baseball Scouting Network (later renamed Evolution Metrix), scouting high school and college players for three draft cycles. For tips and inquiries, feel free to reach out to Marc directly on Twitter or via email (delucchimarc@gmail.com).