ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Aroldis Chapman became the major leagues' career leader in strikeouts as a reliever Friday night, toppling a record that had stood for more than half a century.
The Boston Red Sox's 38-year-old left-hander didn't do it with one of the triple-digit fastballs that have made him one of the most imposing pitchers of his generation and one of the most accomplished relievers in baseball history.
Instead, his high pitch to the Angels' Denzer Guzman was clocked at a mere 98.6 mph — and Guzman still couldn't get around in time.
“I feel very happy, very proud of what I’ve been able to accomplish,” Chapman said through an interpreter. “I just feel very satisfied right now.”
The strikeout was the 1,364th in Chapman's 17-year career. It broke the record long held by Hoyt Wilhelm, the Hall of Famer whose 21-year career ended back in 1972, just five days shy of his 50th birthday.
Chapman paused and soaked in the moment only briefly after fanning Guzman, aware of the significance of the strikeout while also knowing he still had to get two more outs. He promptly gave up two hits, but escaped the jam with a double-play grounder to secure Boston's 5-2 win over Los Angeles and his 383rd career save.
The Red Sox celebrated Chapman’s achievement in their Angel Stadium clubhouse, showing a video retrospective of Chapman’s career to his younger teammates — everything from his debut with Cincinnati in 2010 to his two World Series championships with the Cubs and Rangers.
“It’s cool. We’ve been waiting for that one,” Boston interim manager Chad Tracy said. “What a career he’s had. The cool thing is watching the video, and you’re seeing him at a young age throwing 102, and he’s still doing it. It’s just incredible.”
In his 889th major league appearance — all of them in relief — Chapman saved a deserved victory for Red Sox rookie Jake Bennett, who was making his seventh appearance.
“It’s incredible,” said Bennett, who tired in the eighth. “It’s incredible to even just be a part of a team that it happens on.”
Chapman hadn’t pitched since he tied the strikeout record last Sunday while blowing a save against the Yankees, with whom he spent parts of seven seasons before an acrimonious split four years ago. He has pitched for seven teams since he defected from Cuba in 2009, earning eight All-Star selections and moving up to 10th on the majors' career saves list.
This record spanned across a half-century of baseball history and a fundamental change in the way pitchers are used.
Among the 14 pitchers in major league history who have recorded 1,000 strikeouts as a reliever, only Lindy McDaniel was a contemporary of Wilhelm, a World War II veteran and a pioneer in relief pitching. The crafty knuckleballer was among the first pitchers to be used regularly as what's now known as a high-leverage reliever, coming into close games and tight situations regardless of whether the starter was tired or not.
Chapman has spent his entire career in those tight spots, and he has usually excelled when healthy, often with a fastball that has topped 105 mph at times during his career.
He has even been in a renaissance since joining the Red Sox before last season. After earning AL Reliever of the Year honors in 2025 with a minuscule 1.17 ERA, he has 17 saves in 19 chances this season, still taking high-leverage assignments and usually succeeding.
“I was just focused on doing the job, day in and day out over the course of the last few weeks, getting to this point where I had the opportunity to break the record,” Chapman said. “I had some highs and some lows, but I've just tried to stay positive throughout.”
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Boston Red Sox pitcher Aroldis Chapman gestures after getting his 1364th career strikeout to hold the MLB record for most strikeouts by a relief pitcher during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Los Angeles Angels, Friday, July 3, 2026, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/William Liang)
Boston Red Sox pitcher Aroldis Chapman delivers during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Los Angeles Angels, Friday, July 3, 2026, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/William Liang)
LAMPEDUSA, Sicily (AP) — Pope Leo XIV, who has sparred with the Trump administration over its immigration crackdown, spent the Fourth of July on Saturday in the epicenter of Europe’s migration debate to honor the tens of thousands of people who have died trying to reach Europe to find freedom and prosperity.
While the United States marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence with rallies, parties and fireworks, history’s first U.S.-born pope traveled to the Sicilian island of Lampedusa to pray at a migrant cemetery and celebrate a solemn Mass for the island's residents and newest arrivals.
A treeless strip of rock 9 kilometers (5.6 miles) long, Lampedusa is closer to Africa than the Italian mainland and is the main port of entry into Europe for hundreds of thousands of migrants who crossed by boat from Libya or Tunisia, often smuggled by human traffickers.
Leo met with some migrants at the port and then walked alone onto the jagged jetty rocks, the wind whipping his cassock and blowing his zucchetto skullcap off as he looked out to the sea. He then blessed a plaque dedicating the dock to Pope Francis, who visited in 2013, before celebrating Mass on land.
“This is a place where gestures speak louder than words,” Leo said. “But for gestures to be human, they need a heart.”
In making the visit on this particular Saturday, Leo was sending a powerfully symbolic message to the United States and Europe of the Christian obligation to uphold the dignity of every human being, migrants and the most vulnerable especially, while reminding the United States that it was founded by immigrants.
In a letter sent to Americans on the July 4 anniversary, Leo insisted that protecting the unborn and all human life also means “welcoming, protecting and assisting immigrants, whose hopes, sacrifices and contribution have formed part of the history of this country from its very beginning.”
“To receive them with compassion and generosity is not only an act of charity, but also a recognition of the dignity that belongs to every human person,” Leo wrote.
In recent years, Lampedusa has become Ground Zero of Europe’s migration debate as the continent struggles to police its borders while honoring its legal obligations to welcome refugees fleeing conflict, climate change and poverty.
The number of migrants arriving in Italy so far this year is significantly lower than in recent years, with the Interior Ministry reporting 14,464 arrivals as of Friday compared with 30,598 in the same period last year and 26,202 in 2024.
At the same time, the International Organization of Migration has recorded more than 35,000 missing migrants in the Mediterranean since 2014, though the actual number of dead is believed to be far higher given the untold number of “invisible” shipwrecks that are never recorded.
Leo has strongly emphasized the need to uphold the dignity of migrants, especially amid the Trump administration’s mass deportation program in his native Chicago. But he has also directed his message to Europe’s Christian leaders.
Last month, Leo visited another European migration hot spot, in Spain’s Canary Islands, to shame leaders who turn migrants away indifferently while also warning people smugglers they will face God’s wrath for exploiting the desperation of migrants.
After arriving in Lampedusa by plane, Leo paid homage to the dead at the island’s migrant cemetery, laying a wreath of yellow and white flowers on their graves, marked by simple crosses made from the splintered wood of shipwrecked boats.
The gestures send a “strong message” of solidarity, said Tareke Brhane, a migrant from Eritrea and president of the October 3rd Committee, a nonprofit founded by relatives of victims of a 2013 shipwreck in Lampedusa that left 368 people dead.
“It is a strong sign for our battle with Italy and with Europe in order to register the deaths, because as of today we still do not have a registry (of those deceased),” he told The Associated Press.
Leo’s visit both honors the dead and “gives a message to the relatives, so many of them still waiting and suffering,” he said.
With his visit, Leo followed in the footsteps of Francis, who made the plight of migrants and refugees a priority of his pontificate. For the Catholic Church, welcoming and accompanying people fleeing hardship is part of the Gospel-mandated call to “welcome the stranger.”
Francis traveled to Lampedusa in July 2013, on his first trip outside Rome after his election. He tossed a wreath into the sea in memory of migrants who had died and denounced the “globalization of indifference” that the world shows migrants.
Salvatore Sortino, the IOM’s head of mission for Italy and Malta, said despite the decrease in arrivals, the number of dead had increased proportionally, “in the sense that the diminishing numbers of arrivals hasn’t resulted in a lower number of deaths at sea.”
“That speaks about the vulnerability that remains,” he said. “So the visit of the pope here, where all this happens, I think is a very important reminder of that element.”
Winfield reported from Rome.
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Pope Leo XIV visits the Gateway of Europe monument in Lampedusa, Sicily, southern Italy, Saturday, July 4, 2026, during a one-day pastoral visit to the island long associated with the plight of migrants crossing the Mediterranean. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Pope Leo XIV visits the Gateway of Europe monument in Lampedusa, Sicily, southern Italy, Saturday, July 4, 2026, during a one-day pastoral visit to the island long associated with the plight of migrants crossing the Mediterranean. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Pope Leo XIV walks together with a migrant family at the Gateway of Europe monument in Lampedusa, Sicily, southern Italy, Saturday, July 4, 2026, during a one-day pastoral visit to the island long associated with the plight of migrants crossing the Mediterranean. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Pope Leo XIV walks together with a migrant family at the Gateway of Europe monument in Lampedusa, Sicily, southern Italy, Saturday, July 4, 2026, during a one-day pastoral visit to the island long associated with the plight of migrants crossing the Mediterranean. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Pope Leo XIV pays tribute at the cemetery and on little Joussef's grave, in Lampedusa, Sicily, southern Italy, Saturday, July 4, 2026, during a one-day pastoral visit to an island that has become a symbol of the risks faced by migrants trying to reach Europe by sea.(Pool Photo/Ciro Fusco, Via AP)
A view of the migrant reception center on the island of Lampedusa, southern Italy, Friday, July 3, 2026, one day before Pope Leo XIV's visit. ( AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Tareke Brhane, president of the 3 October Committee, a nonprofit organization founded in the aftermath of the tragedy in Lampedusa in which 368 people lost their lives, poses next to the wreck of a wooden boat used as a monument to commemorate migrants who died, at the cemetery on the island of Lampedusa, southern Italy, Friday, July 3, 2026, one day before Pope Leo XIV's visit. AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
A banner reading "Welcome, Pope Leo XIV" is seen on the island of Lampedusa, Southern Italy, Friday, July 3, 2026, one day ahead of Pope's visit. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
People walk past "The Door of Europe" a monument in the island of Lampedusa, southern Italy, Friday, July 3, 2026, one day before Pope Leo XIV's visit. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Tombs of migrants, including two babies, who died in shipwrecks are seen at the cemetery on the island of Lampedusa, southern Italy, Friday, July 3, 2026, one day before Pope Leo XIV's visit. ( AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
