CC Sabathia has done it. He has 3,000 career strikeouts.

By: Bill Yan, 5th grade 5/1/2019

CC Sabathia hit 3,000 career strikeouts yesterday against the Diamondbacks by striking out his old pal and ex-Yankee catcher, John Ryan Murphy. It was Murphy that caught CC’s 2,500th strikeout, and CC later said in a press conference “I didn’t want it to be Murph,” Sabathia said. “Me and him are really close. I’ve known him his whole career and he’s a great guy. I didn’t want it to be [D-backs starter Zack] Greinke and I didn’t want it to be Murph. I was just glad it was over with.”

CC recalls his first strikeout in his first game in April 8, 2001, when he struck out Baltimore left fielder Mike Kinkade looking on a 2-2 pitch in Cleveland. “Now, that first strikeout was nerve-wracking,” Sabathia recalled. He said that he didn’t want to strike out his old friend Kinkade, either, and instead hoped that he would strikeout someone big, but he said that he was “Meh, it’s ok.”

Here’s what MLB.com thinks of it: