ATLANTA — Braves rookie Spencer Strider made history with another sterling outing Thursday night as he struck out 12 and gave up just two hits across six innings against the St. Louis Cardinals.
He became the first rookie since 1900 with at least 11 strikeouts and two or fewer hits allowed in consecutive starts. Strider struck out 11 and gave up just one hit in last week’s win over the Reds.
It’s been an incredible start to the former fourth-round draft pick’s MLB career — he has struck out 102 in 65⅔ innings this year, the fourth-most strikeouts in a pitcher’s first eight career starts in the past 30 years.
Strider (4-2) mixed a fastball that regularly touched 99 mph and a high 80s slider that was equally effective, recording a strikeout in each of the first nine outs Thursday to mark the first time that has happened since the Braves debuted in Atlanta in 1966.
“It’s cool,” he said. “A lot of good pitchers have pitched for Atlanta. That’s neat. I wish we would’ve pulled out the win as well, but it’s cool.”
Strider, 23, gave up a bloop double to Paul Goldschmidt and a walk to Nolan Arenado in the first but struck out Nolan Gorman to end the threat. He struck out the side and faced the minimum in the second.
The hard-throwing right-hander topped 100 mph for the first time when Brendan Donovan was caught looking for the second out of the third, his seventh straight strikeout before Juan Yepez lined a clean opposite-field single. Goldschmidt whiffed to end the inning.
Arenado popped up to begin the fourth, the first out that was put into play by the Cardinals. Strider struck out three more the rest of the way.
The outing lowered his ERA on the season to 2.60.
The Braves ultimately lost the Thursday game in extra innings, as Dylan Carlson hit a tiebreaking single in the top of the 11th inning to give St. Louis a 3-2 victory.
“It’s a game of inches, and the inches got us pretty much,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said.
The Associated Press and ESPN Stats & Information contributed to this report.