Meet the reliever who has more strikeouts than Stephen Strasburg

Dellin Betances may play third fiddle in the New York Yankees bullpen behind Andrew Miller and Aroldis Chapman once the latter returns from his suspension, but he's first in a few other categories. That includes in the hearts of Yankees fans everywhere.

That's because Betances is striking out batters at an astounding pace this season. Not that that's anything new considering he struck out 266 batters over 174 innings during his first two full seasons in MLB. But he's taken things to a completely new level this season by fanning 22 batters over his first nine innings.

For a little perspective, the nine-inning record for strikeouts in a single game is 20. Betances is two better than that.

If that's not impressive enough, Betances' 22 strikeouts have come against just 35 batters. In other words, just making contact against him is a victory.

If you'd like to go one step further, he's struck out more batters in nine innings than Stephen Strasburg (21 in 21.2 innings), Jeff Samardzija (19 in 27 innings) and Matt Harvey (14 in 22.1 innings), just to name a few. He's only one behind the likes of Max Scherzer, Jon Lester and Cole Hamels, so that pretty much confirms he's doing something pretty special here.

You can throw out that it's small sample size, and that would be true. You can point out how those numbers are unsustainable, and how most of those pitchers will or at least should finish with more strikeouts this season. Those points would also be valid. But it's all relative to the role he plays and the domination he's asserted as a late-inning reliever.

Even if those numbers come down, they'll have to come down a long, long way just to meet Betances' career average of 13.9 strikeouts per nine innings, which is already considered elite. That's how good he is right now.

Now, here are a few other facts and figures that could possibly blow your mind.

	Katie Sharp @ktsharp
Dellin Betances is the only pitcher with more than 20 K and a 0.00 ERA this season. 1:38 PM - 23 Apr 2016

 

	Ace of MLB Stats @theaceofspaeder	9h
	Most multi-K relief appearances since 2014#Yankees Dellin Betances 105#Yankees Aroldis Chapman 81#Yankees Andrew Miller 72

	Ace of MLB Stats @theaceofspaeder
Dellin Betances has 105 multi-strikeout relief appearances since 2014. That is 40 more than any other non-#Yankees pitcher. 1:45 PM - 23 Apr 2016   Katie Sharp @ktsharp Most Consecutive Multi-K Scoreless Apps., Yankees History 8 Dellin Betances (2016) 8 Dellin Betances (2015) 7 Mariano Rivera (1996) 1:53 PM - 23 Apr 2016

To say Betances is unhittable right now might be the ultimate understatement. Maybe it's not quite as impressive as what Jake Arrieta is doing, because Arrieta is out there dominating into the eighth and ninth innings every fifth day. But if you needed a single inning or even a single batter from any pitcher in baseball, you could easily argue that Betances is the guy you want pitching.