Colson Montgomery Breaks Mark Reynolds' Strikeout Record, on a Pitch Down the Middle

It came on a full count, on a fastball right over the plate that Colson Montgomery watched go by. That was strikeout No. 224 of his season, one more than anyone in baseball history.

Mark Reynolds had held the record since 2009, when he struck out 223 times for Arizona. Montgomery broke it Friday against Colorado's Tomoyuki Sugano, in his 631st plate appearance of his second season.

The comparison to Reynolds cuts both ways. Reynolds hit 44 home runs the year he set the record, and Montgomery, 24, has 31 homers and 87 RBIs for a White Sox team headed to the playoffs. The damage is real when he makes contact.

The contact is the issue. His 35.5% strikeout rate is second-worst among qualified hitters, behind only his teammate Munetaka Murakami at 35.6%, and he's chasing more than he did as a rookie. The last few weeks have been rough: .085 over 21 games, with 37 strikeouts in 83 trips and his average down to .199.