Lucky 21: Fayetteville sets franchise K record

The last time Andrew Taylor and Michael Knorr pitched in the same game for Single-A Fayetteville, the two combined to strike out 10.

This time, they doubled that total.

Taylor and Knorr -- the Astros’ No. 15 and No. 25 prospects, respectively -- combined to strike out 20 across eight frames in the Woodpeckers’ 7-3 win over Columbia on Wednesday. Bryan Perez also added a K in his one inning of work.

The 21 strikeouts are a franchise record for Fayetteville and the most whiffs in a nine-inning Carolina League game since at least 2005.

The right-handed Knorr set the tone early as the starter, punching out nine of the 15 batters he faced across four frames. The 22-year-old won six-pitch battles with the first two batters he faced, striking out both of them, and went on to work around a hit and two walks to keep the Fireflies off the board.

After allowing a double in the bottom of the second, Knorr whiffed seven of the final nine batters he faced, six of them coming on swings and misses. Overall, he racked up 13 swings and misses across four innings.

It was impressive enough that Fayetteville already had 10 strikeouts after Perez completed the fifth frame, but Taylor was about to come in and take it to another level.

On the very first pitch the 21-year-old threw in the sixth, Brett Squires reached on a fielding error. Taylor proceeded to strike out the next five batters in a row -- three swinging, two looking -- and struck out three batters in each of his final two frames of work.

For those keeping track at home, that’s 11 whiffs in just four innings to bring the strikeout total for the game to a record 21.

Taylor and Knorr were two of the three college arms that the Astros selected in the first four rounds of last year’s Draft -- the former was taken 80th overall and the latter 103rd. Both were given the summer off by the organization to gear up for their debuts in 2023, and both are quickly settling into the pro routine.

Both hurlers have racked up 15 strikeouts through their first two appearances -- Taylor in 8 1/3 innings of work and Knorr with eight -- and have helped propel the Woodpeckers to a win in each game they’ve pitched in.