The Strikeout Machine

The story of a pitcher who took strikeouts to the next level in his 23-year career.

December 20, 2000

I remember it was a Wednesday night. The next day, when my grandmother showed me the newspaper, I couldn't really believe it: Faustino struck out 22 against Holguín!

Yes, nine innings full of curveballs and lots of swings and misses for Holguín's offense, which got just three hits. Two of them were singles through the infield and a double by catcher Carlos González. Faustino, in fact, was the protagonist of 24 outs. In addition to the 22 strikeouts, he fielded a couple of ground balls near the mound. The first of them was after González's double leading off the top of the third inning. Karel García bunted the ball, trying to get González to advance to third, but Faustino fielded the bunt and forced González with an accurate throw to third baseman Jesús Toledo.

The other play was a ground ball out by Karel Garcia himself, which served for the second out in the top of the fifth inning. So Faustino had a direct influence on 24 of the 27 outs, which brings us up to 89% of the control of the game that wintery December night at the Capitán San Luis stadium. Someone who perfectly remembers that jewel of a pitch in 2 hours and 53 minutes was Juan Rodríguez Tabares,* the main umpire. “Faustino was unbeatable,” was the first phrase Rodríguez said when recalling one of the two memorable feats in which he had to work behind the plate.

*Apparently, Faustino Corrales felt quite comfortable with Juan Rodríguez Tabares’ strike zone or vice versa. Although we really don’t know to what extent each thing could have influenced. But the truth is that Faustino had two starts that season with Rodríguez as the main umpire. The results? The 22-strikeout game against Holguín and, three months and 11 days later in that same 40th National Series, another pitching gem in which Faustino pitched nine innings with two earned runs allowed and struck out 13 opponents. Final result: he recorded 18 combined innings, with seven hits and two earned runs allowed. He struck out 35 opponents and walked six, all of that with Juan Rodríguez Tabares as the main umpire.

The other night to remember had been a year earlier, the Perfect Game that Maels Rodríguez pitched against Las Tunas at the José Antonio Huelga stadium.

There is no National Series game in which a pitcher has had so much influence on the 27 outs of the game. Obviously, Faustino's great feat was his 22 strikeouts, which we will delve into in a minute. As a left-handed pitcher, Faustino was not characterized by elite pick-off movement. Nor was he a brilliant fielder. He averaged just .958, committed 22 errors and participated in 22 double plays. In the history of the National Series, it has not been common to see left-handed pitchers with good fielding skills, which may be reasonable given how difficult it is to be left-handed to get off the mound and throw to the bases. But if we compare Faustino with other similar pitchers, he falls below the league average.

For example, the 114 pitchers who have registered at least 200 defensive chances have an average of 15 errors and five double plays above his errors. Faustino is below all of those metrics, as he committed 22 errors and participated in 22 double plays. But in terms of his ability and talent to strike out, there is no doubt that Faustino Corrales was one of the most dominant left-handed pitchers. In fact, he has the third-highest strikeout record in history (2,360) and is the highest-striking left-handed pitcher ever. He finished with 382 more strikeouts than the next left-handed pitcher in the Top-10, Jorge Luis “Tati” Valdés (1,982).

Faustino’s 8.3 K/9 strikeout rate still leads among left-handed pitchers who recorded at least 3,000 batters faced in National Series. So, it should come as no surprise that Faustino managed to put together a 22-strikeout game. If anyone could do it, he was one of them. Faustino had several of the most devastating curveballs in the game, and his fastball easily skimmed between 90 and 92 mph.

By the way, you’ll notice I said “several of the curveballs.” And it did! Faustino used to throw the curveball in many ways. He had a special spin against left-handed hitters, sometimes slightly faster. More arced. Bigger, as huge and encompassing as a tsunami threatening to swallow up hitters. But then he could also throw his curveball to simply enter the strike zone. Look, these were some of the customers who suffered the most from Faustino Corrales' curveball recipe: