Brewers ace Sheets breaks team mark with 1,082nd strikeout

Milwaukee Brewers' Rickie Weeks hits the game-winning two-run single during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals Friday, May 9, 2008, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

MILWAUKEE—Brewers ace Ben Sheets set a franchise record for strikeouts in the first inning of Saturday's game against the St. Louis Cardinals.

Sheets, the longest-tenured member of the 2008 Brewers, fanned Albert Pujols on an 0-2 breaking ball to reach 1,082 career strikeouts and surpass Teddy Higuera, who pitched for Milwaukee from 1985-91 and 1993-94.

In the final season of a four-year contract, Sheets opened the inning with a groundout before striking out Aaron Miles on a big curveball in the dirt. The right-hander fooled Pujols with the same pitch after the Cardinals' slugger couldn't stop his swing.

Sheets, who had an 18-strikeout performance at Atlanta in 2004, has had 14 games of 10 strikeouts or more. He set the franchise mark in 110 fewer innings than Higuera needed.