Trevor Williams divined the question before it was finished.
“Striking out more than hitting?” he interjected midway through a question that began with something about the month of April. He turned around at his locker and grinned. “I keep up.”
What Williams already knew is a statistic that has crept its way into the baseball public’s consciousness as the end of April draws near: Teams are on pace to finish the month with more strikeouts than hits. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, that has never happened in a month in major league history.
Entering Thursday, 20 of the 30 teams had more strikeouts than hits; the Pirates (215 hits, 179 Ks) were not one of them.