10 Epic MLB Playoff Records That Will Never Be Broken | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors

Player: Curt Schilling, 2001

Four years after their inception as a franchise, the Arizona Diamondbacks rode the duo of Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling to an unlikely World Series title over the heavily favored New York Yankees at the peak of their dynasty.

The "Big Unit" won NL Cy Young honors during the regular season and had a terrific playoff run of his own, but it was Schilling who rewrote the strikeout record books.

The 34-year-old made six starts and tossed three complete games, piling up the punchouts along the way.

Those 56 strikeouts give him a comfortable lead for the highest total in a single postseason, ahead of Gerrit Cole (2019), Stephen Strasburg (2019), Cliff Lee (2010), Josh Beckett (2003) and Randy Johnson (2001), who each tallied 47 punchouts in one postseason.

Strikeouts continue to rise around the league, but starting pitchers are also on a shorter leash. As such, the likelihood of a guy getting a chance to pitch enough innings to accumulate that many strikeouts are increasingly remote.