{"id":553714,"date":"2026-03-30T06:31:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T06:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/553714\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T06:31:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T06:31:13","slug":"blue-jays-set-mlb-record-with-50-strikeouts-in-3-game-sweep-of-as","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/553714\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays set MLB record with 50 strikeouts in 3-game sweep of A’s"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mar 29, 2026, 05:28 PM ET<\/p>\n

TORONTO — The Blue Jays<\/a> started the 50th season in team history by striking out 50 batters in their opening series against the Athletics<\/a>, setting the major league record for strikeouts in the first three games of the season.<\/p>\n

“Fiftieth-year anniversary of the Blue Jays and 50 strikeouts over three,” manager John Schneider said. “Pretty round number.”<\/p>\n

Kevin Gausman<\/a> set a Blue Jays Opening Day record by striking out 11 batters in six innings Friday. Dylan Cease<\/a> fanned 12 Saturday, the most by any pitcher making his Blue Jays debut. Eric Lauer<\/a> struck out nine Sunday as Toronto won the finale 5-2<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Blue Jays closer Jeff Hoffman notched six of the team’s 50 strikeouts in a sweep of the A’s.\u00a0John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

“We faced good pitching,” Athletics manager Mark Kotsay said. “They have some really good arms. Obviously, their front-line starters we had our hands full with.”<\/p>\n

Blue Jays closer Jeff Hoffman<\/a> struck out four batters in the ninth inning of Friday’s 3-2 win after Tyler Soderstrom<\/a> reached on a wild strike three.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/p>\n

On Sunday, Hoffman struck out a pair in the ninth to complete the sweep, ending the game by getting Max Muncy<\/a> swinging.<\/p>\n

“I think [pitching coach] Pete [Walker] has a clause in his contract that may have just escalated, may have just triggered,” Schneider joked. “It’s fun to watch the whole collective effort in terms of putting a plan together and then going to execute it. It’s fun to be part of that.”<\/p>\n

The 50 strikeouts tied the franchise record for the most in a single series. Toronto pitchers needed four games to fan 50 Tigers<\/a> in a season-opening series against Detroit in March 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mar 29, 2026, 05:28 PM ET TORONTO — The Blue Jays started the 50th season in team history…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553715,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-553714","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-mlb","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}