Minor leaguer strikes out record eight times during 21-inning game
The longer baseball games go, the weirder things seem to get. Or, in the case of Khalil Lee, a Kansas City Royals minor leaguer with their Class A affiliate the Lexington Legends, the uglier it gets.
Though the Legends ultimately won their wild 21-inning game against the Delmarva Shorebirds on Friday night, Lee finished the game with eight strikeouts.
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Let us be clear. Lee was not Lexington’s pitcher and did not strike out eight batters. He’s the Legends center fielder, and he struck out eight times in 10 plate appearances.
According to Kansas City Royals employee Brennan Mense, that is a professional baseball record that no one ever wanted to lay claim to.
Khalil Lee set a new all-time pro baseball record with his 8th K to end the 21st. First EVER player with 2 golden sombreros in one game https://t.co/2HC1EMwxQm
— Brennan Mense (@BrennanMense) July 14, 2017
For those unfamiliar, a “Golden Sombrero” represents a batter striking out four times in a single game. For someone to do it twice in one game is mind-blowing.
Unfortunately for Lee, this is not a new trend. Over 299 at-bats this season, he has struck out 117 times. That does not project well over a full season.
For the record, the most strikeouts in an MLB game is six. That’s been done eight different times with each coming in extra innings. The most recent was by Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Geoff Jenkins during a 17-inning game in 2004.
Lee’s strikeouts were just one part of this crazy game though. Mother Nature played a large role in dragging it out. The game was officially suspended at 1:07 a.m. EST Friday morning, before entering into a 17-hour rain delay. Once it resumed, Lexington’s Marten Gasparini wasted no time giving his team the lead by homering on the inning’s fourth pitch. That gave them a 7-6 lead that held up as the final score.
The teams were scheduled to play another game on Friday for Manny Machado Bobblehead Night. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans for that too.
So…what's another couple hours among friends, @LexingtonLegend? Rain delay on The Shore. #FlyTogether pic.twitter.com/0x5zTxXCk5
— Delmarva Shorebirds (@shorebirds) July 14, 2017
Due to inclement weather, tonight’s game against Lexington has been CANCELLED. The Shorebirds are back at it tomorrow against Rome.
— Delmarva Shorebirds (@shorebirds) July 14, 2017
After the craziness of Thursday and Friday, we can’t imagine too many players were disappointed by this. Especially Khalil Lee, who undoubtedly wants to put that game and this series behind him.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
