Pedro Watch

Updated: July 2nd, 2006

On April 17th, Pedro Martinez reached a monumental milestone when he defeated the Atlanta Braves for his 200th victory. Now Pedro is closing in on an even more exclusive club, 3,000 K’s. The K count is presently 2,972. Pedro has struck out 111 batters in 16 starts so far this season. At his present rate he should reach 3,000 sometime in mid-late July, right after the All-Star break. Pedro will be the 14th major leaguer  to accomplish this amazing feat. Greg Maddux was the last pitcher to reach the magic number (7/26/05 vs the Giants). The Mets have a homestand from July 21st -July 26th. They begin the second half with a 6-game road trip after the break. So, if Pedro is going to reach this fabled milestone at home, fans who want to attend might want to target the Chicago Cubs series at Shea, July 24th to 26th— this could be New Yorkers’ best chance to see some baseball history made.

Present Strikeout Total               Strikeouts Needed
             2972                                              28

*3,000 K Fast Fact

Cesar Geronimo is
the only batter who was the 3,000th victim of two different pitchers.
On 7/17/74, he was the 3,000th batter to whiff against Bob Gibson. On 7/4/80 it was deja vu when Nolan Ryan struck him out for his 3,000th strikeout.