PHOENIX — 25 years ago, Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Randy Johnson put on a show never seen before or since on a major league field.
On May 8, 2001, Johnson struck out 20 batters in a ballgame, the only left-handed pitcher to ever do so, a hallmark performance during his third straight Cy Young-winning season.
To this day, only four pitchers in the league’s history have struck out 20 hitters in nine innings, and only once has it happened since Johnson dominated the Cincinnati Reds on that special night at then-called Bank One Ballpark:
Red Sox RHP Roger Clemens: April 29, 1986 vs. Seattle and Sept. 18, 1996 vs. Detroit Cubs RHP Kerry Wood: May 6, 1998 vs. Houston Diamondbacks LHP Randy Johnson: May 8, 2021 vs. Cincinnati Nationals RHP Max Scherzer: May 11, 2016 vs. Detroit“I’m very fortunate,” Johnson told Arizona Sports on Friday. “I mean, I threw a perfect game, pitched in the World Series, so all of those accomplishments are all great. They’re all memorable and you just relish the moment.
“Now that I’m well retired, I’m able to look back at those moments a little bit more closer and enjoy the moment. When the accomplishment happens, I’ve just kind of move on. I’m still playing the game and I don’t get caught up into that stuff. I don’t want it to be a distraction.”
Start your day with all 20 of Randy Johnson's strikeouts from May 8, 2001. pic.twitter.com/bOrloeGTAn
— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) May 8, 2026
Tom Cheney holds the all-time record with 21 strikeouts in a game, but he did so in 16 innings pitched in 1962 for the Washington Senators against the Baltimore Orioles. He faced 62 hitters!
Johnson was already the two-time reigning National League Cy Young winner and throwing the ball decently well to start the year. But the 20-strikeout game kicked off just a ridiculous run of dominance: 1.79 ERA over the next 19 games in which Arizona went 16-3.
He struck out 16 hitters three times in 2021, the only pitcher in big league history with 16-plus strikeouts in four games during a single campaign. Not even strikeout king Nolan Ryan did so.
Johnson had come close a few times to cracking 20, but as he put it, “everything kind of came together” that night.
“That particular game, I’d come close on several occasions,” Johnson said. “I struck out 18 in 1992 and I had struck out 19 on two different occasions in the same year in 1997 in Seattle, and for whatever reason, on May 8, 2001, here at the ballpark, everything kind of came together and I ended up getting the 20 strikeouts.”
Johnson struck out two Reds in the first inning, two in the second, two more in the third and then punched out the side in the fourth. He struck out the side again in the seventh and eighth innings, striking out seven hitters in a row.
With two outs in the ninth, Johnson gave Reds hitter Juan Castro an unhittable fastball on the upper-outside corner for a whiff. Johnson pumped his fist and stuck his glove arm in the air as then-called Bank One Ballpark erupted with K signs decorating the stands.
In the signature season of Diamondbacks baseball capped with a World Series title, that was an unforgettable moment among many that led up to the October and November madness.
“There was no one particular strikeout, I just remember when I struck out the 20th batter. I think the game was tied. And so I knew that I had tied the record and did a small little celebration with the fist pump. I think that’s a record that will probably stay with the members that are in it right now. I could be wrong,” Johnson said.
In the decades since, only two pitchers other than Scherzer have even reached 18 strikeouts in a game: Ben Sheets for the 2004 Brewers and Corey Kluber for Cleveland in 2015.
The game is different, as Johnson used 124 pitches to get through his nine innings. Pitchers do not eclipse 100 pitches like they used to.
There have been seven games since 2020 in which a pitcher threw at least 124 pitches, and none of them came close to 20 strikeouts.
“The person that set the record initially was Roger Clemens and he did it twice and then Kerry Wood did it as a rookie with the Cubs and then I did it and then Max Scherzer, but the one common denominator is they’re all strikeout pitchers,” Johnson said.
“Myself, Max Scherzer and Roger Clemens have 3,000-plus strikeouts. Myself and Roger Clemens are two and three in strikeouts all-time. I guess the one, not so much (surprise) that other people didn’t do it, but maybe that Nolan Ryan didn’t do it or Tom Seaver or Steve Carlton. … More importantly, pitchers don’t go nine innings (anymore) and you need to go nine innings to get 20 strikeouts.”
Johnson returned to Chase Field on Friday to meet with fans on the 25th anniversary. He recently had his jersey number retired in Seattle, accomplishing the rare feat of being honored by multiple franchises.
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