UCLA righty Trevor Bauer was drafted third by the Arizona Diamondbacks in Monday's draft, his whiplike delivery drawing scores of comparisons to another undersized pitcher who also plies his trade in California.
But on the off chance that Bauer thinks being "the next Tim Lincecum" was going to be an easy task, his real-life barometer underscored the challenge by striking out the 1,000th batter of his career on the same night. Lincecum's 1,000th punchout victim was Washington's Jerry Hairston Jr. in the second inning of an otherwise middling performance (four runs, five innings) for the ace.
Watch No. 1,000 here
Lincecum, of course, is allowed his off days because he is beyond spectacular on so many others. With five strikeouts during the 135th start of his career, he became only the eighth pitcher since 1900 to reach 1,000 strikeouts in his first five seasons and he joins some pretty awesome company: Tom Seaver, Bert Blyleven, Dwight Gooden, Grover Cleveland Alexander, Kerry Wood, Hideo Nomo and Mark Langston. If he strikes out 156 more batters over his next 20-22 starts this season — something easily reachable given his career K/9 rate of exactly 10.0 batters per game — he'll top Seaver for the most strikeouts by a pitcher over his first five seasons.
In the grand scheme of things, Monday's achievement will take a lower billing than the two big hallmarks of his career so far — two Cy Young awards and a World Series title that he helped win by recording victories over Cliff Lee in the opener and clincher.
Still, the sheer volume of his stats compilation makes it easier to understand how he's accomplished so much in such a short time. He won't turn 27 until next Wednesday.
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