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Jacob deGrom hits 2,000 strikeouts. Only one man got there faster.

· Yahoo Sports

There are 94 pitchers in major league history with 2,000 strikeouts. Jacob deGrom got there faster than 93 of them.

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The Texas Rangers right-hander needed eight pitches Thursday night to reach the moment. He struck out Abimelec Ortiz on a slider Thursday night for No. 2,000, two batters into a game against the Washington Nationals. He reached 2,000 Ks in 1,661 career innings. Only Chris Sale, at 1,626 innings in 2019, needed fewer.

DeGrom passed Yu Darvish (1,697â…“ innings), Pedro Martinez, who got there in 1,711â…“ innings, and Randy Johnson, who needed 1,733â…“, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. If you measure it by games, it is nearly as lopsided. Thursday was deGrom's 272nd big league appearance, all of them starts. Johnson needed 262 games to hit 2,000 strikeouts. Nobody else has done it in fewer than 277.

Sale was 30 at the time he reached 2,000 strikeouts and Clayton Kershaw was 29. DeGrom just turned 38 in June.

The two-time Cy Young Award winner in 2018-19 had a late start. DeGrom was a shortstop the first two years of college and drafted after converting to pitching in 2010. He was a ninth-round pick who blew out his elbow six starts into his professional career. He had Tommy John in 2010 and missed all of 2011. He didn't make it to the majors until a month before his 26th birthday.

He has also been saddled with injuries in MLB. He made 31 or more starts in each season from 2017 through 2019 and pitched to a 2.53 ERA across 622â…“ innings. He made 32 starts in 2018 alone. Then came the injuries, and the Tommy John surgery in June 2023, 13 years after the first one. He made just 35 starts total from 2021-24.

When he was healthy, his strikeout rate was among the tops in the game. His strikeout percentage is 30.5 for his career.

This season has been deGrom's messiest of any "healthy stretch." He entered Thursday night's game at 8-8 with a 3.95 ERA and a 98 ERA+. Both are career worsts. The fastball still averages better than 97 mph.

He's had a left hip and glute issue nagging him since the All-Star break, and it is why manager Skip Schumaker pulled him after five innings and 88 pitches against Baltimore on Aug. 8, a night deGrom still struck out nine and gave up one run. Five days later he left his start in Anaheim after just two innings with what the Rangers labeled triceps fatigue. He had an MRI that came back clean and he threw two bullpens to gear up for this night.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jacob deGrom hits 2,000 strikeouts. Only one man got there faster.

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How Mithun Chakraborty's James Bond Type Movies Inspired Emran Hashmi's Upcoming Gunmaaster G9

· Free Press Journal

Just a few days ago, the release date for Gunmaaster G9, starring Emraan Hashmi in the titular role, was announced as November 27.

Directed by Aditya Datt and marketed as a ‘new-age action drama,’ it also stars Genelia Deshmukh and Aparshakti Khurana.

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Datt made his debut with Aashiq Banaya Aapne (2005), which had the popular song with the same name, sung by Himesh Reshammiya, who reunites with Datt in Gunmaaster G9.

However, what Gen Z may not be aware of is Mithun Chakraborty’s connection with the same. You see, Gunmaster G9 was a character made famous by Chakraborty in two films where he played a stylish Bond-like spy in white and black, smart, well-pressed tuxedos — Surakksha (1979) and Wardat (1982). Though Chakraborty’s shirt had so many frills, it looked like a birthday party khoi bag from the 80s.

Both films, especially the first one, had borrowed generously from the Bond movies (See Box), and were directed by Ravikant Nagaich. In Surakksha, which also starred Ranjeeta, Jeevan, Jagdeep, Iftekhar and Aruna Irani, Officer Gopi/Code Name Gunmaster G9 (Chakraborty) of the CBI has to stop the Shiv Shakti Organisation (SSO) from spreading terror in India. The villain even had a henchman who was half-human, half-robot, called Jango. Instead of VFX, if a plane explosion had to be shown, it was depicted by showing a toy rubber plane catching fire. And while Bond has his theme song, here we had a catchy tune by Bappi Lahiri and Annette Pinto. A classic retro masala spy movie, it minted money at the box office. Timed pleasantly at 2 hours 20 minutes, it is surprisingly short for a film of that time, with very crisp editing. And surprise, surprise, Chakraborty is wearing a digital watch in 1979!

Its sequel, Wardat, however, didn’t work at the box office, though, again, it had fast edits, lots of colourful elements and an interesting villain. It deals with large locusts that attack farmers, leading to heavy damage, a way in which the maniacal nemesis tackles the world markets.

G9 investigates, which leads him to the world of underground scientists who are using nature for their nefarious purposes. The villain’s right hand here was Shakti Kapoor, and his character in the film was called... wait for it... Shakti Kapoor! The film also had Kalpana Iyer, Jagdeep and Keshto Mukherjee.

Come November, we shall know what kind of treatment Datt is giving to his reimagining. I just hope for two things: that it brings back the charm of the old Bond movies, along with that signature, colourful villain, apparently being played by Khurana.

Scenes from Surakksha inspired by Bond movies

1. A pilot is murdered and replaced by an impostor.

Inspired by: Thunderball (1965).

2. The villain, patchy-eyed SSO chief, Doctor Shiva.

Inspired by: Ernst Stavro Blofeld, a villain seen in seven Bond movies.

3. Doctor Shiva’s metallic hands.

Inspired by: Dr No (1962).

4. A venomous snake in a hotel bathroom.

Inspired by: Live and Let Die (1973).

7. A woman using a telescope to look closely at a card game to cheat.

Inspired by: Goldfinger (1964).

6. Bikini-clad women dancing in the opening sequence while the theme song plays.

Inspired by: Literally EVERY Bond movie before the 80s.

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Former Pakistan PM Imran Khan Back In Jail, Hours After He Was Shifted To Hospital

· NDTV

Khan has been imprisoned since August 2023. He says the cases against him are politically motivated, an accusation the government denies.

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