Chicago White Sox shortstop Colson Montgomery just tied the MLB single-season strikeout record on Thursday, September 24, racking up his 223rd whiff this season to match Mark Reynolds’ infamous mark set way back in 2009. This wild piece of history went down on the very same night the White Sox clinched a postseason berth, making for some seriously mixed emotions.
Dodging Unwanted History, For Now
Montgomery actually secured his infamous, record-tying 223rd strikeout in his very first at-bat of the game on Thursday. Talk about immediate, unwanted drama! But here’s the kicker, folks: he then flew out twice in his subsequent plate appearances, expertly dodging the ignominy of outright breaking the single-season record in the middle of his team’s big postseason clincher. The dude just tied a record that nobody really wants to own, and he did it on a night when his team secured their spot in the dance. Now, the pressure’s really on. Montgomery and the White Sox have three more games left this weekend, with the Colorado Rockies coming to Chicago for the final series of the regular season. The suspense is real. Can he make it through these last few games without owning this notorious record all by himself?
The Strikeout “Race” and a Modern Trend
This hasn’t just been Montgomery’s story, though; the Phillies’ Kyle Schwarber has also been eyeing this dubious distinction. Schwarber was sitting at 218 strikeouts heading into Thursday’s games, just five behind Montgomery’s record-tying mark. Both players were locked at 216 through Sunday, but Montgomery went on a serious whiff spree in the days leading up to Thursday. He racked up three strikeouts on Tuesday and another three on Wednesday, both in Kansas City, to pull ahead in this wild, unwanted “race.” Despite the K’s piling up, Montgomery’s second season in the majors isn’t all bad news for the White Sox. He’s still hitting .200 in 150 games, slugging a solid 31 home runs, and driving in 87 RBIs. The reality is, the numbers show the modern game has way more swings and misses than ever before. Others have come super close to 223 recently; James Wood of the Washington Nationals, for instance, finished with 221 whiffs in 2025. Get this: an insane 14 of the top 15 single-season strikeout totals in MLB history have all happened since 2009. We’re talking guys like Adam Dunn (222 in 2012), Chris Davis (219 in 2016), Elly De La Cruz (218 in 2024), and even Kyle Schwarber showing up multiple times on that infamous leaderboard. It’s a trend, but Montgomery is pushing it to new extremes right now.
So, while the Chicago White Sox are celebrating their hard-fought journey to the postseason, Colson Montgomery’s personal battle at the plate is far from over. With three crucial home games against the Rockies this weekend, every single at-bat is going to be a nail-biting tightrope walk. Will he hold onto a shared piece of MLB’s strikeout history, or will he step into that infamous spotlight all alone? You absolutely gotta watch and see how this wild story plays out. It’s going to be epic!
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
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