Question

During the 2017 regular Major League Baseball season, Chris Sale of the Boston Red Sox and Max Scherzer of the Washington Nationals were the top major league pitchers for strikeouts. The two pitchers had a total of 576 strikeouts. Sale had 40 more strikeouts than Scherzer. How many strikeouts did each pitcher have?

a) Sale: 308, Scherzer: 268
b) Sale: 316, Scherzer: 256
c) Sale: 288, Scherzer: 288
d) Sale: 280, Scherzer: 296

Answer 1

By solving a system of two equations based on the given information, we find that Chris Sale had 308 strikeouts and Max Scherzer had 268 strikeouts during the 2017 season. Chris Sale had 308 strikeouts, and Max Scherzer had 268 strikeouts, which corresponds to option a).

Step-by-step explanation:

During the 2017 regular Major League Baseball season, Chris Sale of the Boston Red Sox and Max Scherzer of the Washington Nationals were the top major league pitchers for strikeouts with a total of 576 strikeouts. To calculate the number of strikeouts each pitcher had, we will use algebra to solve a system of two equations. Let's call the number of strikeouts Chris Sale had 'S' and the number of strikeouts Max Scherzer had 'M'.

The problem gives us the following two pieces of information which we can turn into equations:

1. S + M = 576 (The total number of strikeouts by both pitchers)
2. S = M + 40 (Chris Sale had 40 more strikeouts than Max Scherzer)

Now we substitute the second equation into the first equation:

(M + 40) + M = 576

2M + 40 = 576

2M = 536

M = 268

Now that we have the number of strikeouts for Max Scherzer, we can find out those for Chris Sale by plugging this value into one of our initial equations:

S = M + 40

S = 268 + 40

S = 308

Therefore, Chris Sale had 308 strikeouts, and Max Scherzer had 268 strikeouts, which corresponds to option a).