Marlins ace Jose Fernandez had himself a night against the Phillies.
Though Fernandez departed following 6 1/3 innings -- he'd thrown 104 pitches overall and had placed two runners on base in the frame -- he finished with 14 strikeouts, tying his career-best mark. Ten of his first 11 outs came via the K. Fernandez had previously struck out 14 batters in three other games, including most recently on June 5 against the Mets. Unfortunately, the Marlins continued to struggle at scoring runs in those games (they'd won all three, but two by 1-0 margins), and he exited Monday's facing a 2-0 deficit. Miami erased a 2-0 deficit to win 3-2 in 11 innings.
While Fernandez failed in notching a new single-game high, he succeeded in other historic pursuits. On a franchise level, he extended his leads in two important categories: most career and single-season starts with 10-plus strikeouts. Additionally, Fernandez improved upon his lead in this nifty category:
Then there's this: Fernandez became the third-fastest pitcher to 500 strikeouts:
Not bad. If only we had a GIF of Fernandez cooling off in front of a fan so we could make a bad joke about how he was on fire. Oh wait, we do (we'll spare you the bad joke though):
Thank you, Jose. Thank you.