Toronto Blue Jays closer Jeff Hoffman reaches career milestone

Hoffman, 32, is in his 10th season in the Majors and just reached a career milestone, pitching in his 500th inning according to their official social media account.

In the first month of the season, Hoffman allowed just one home run and owned a skimpy 1.17 ERA.

Since then, there have been issues. His ERA in the interim is a shade over 9.00 and he has surrendered seven homers and nine walks.

His ERA is on the high side this year, but he is 6-2 with 45 strikeouts.

The only reliever with more strikeouts on the team is Brendon Little (52), who has thrown three more innings than Hoffman.

When Hoffman is on the mound, hitters are only batting an average of .216.

Hoffman has now pitched 500.1 innings in the Majors after his outing on Thursday, but the 6-5 loss the Blue Jays took didn't fall on his shoulders since he pitched a scoreless inning.

The former first-round pick spent half of his career with the Colorado Rockies after they selected him ninth overall in 2014.

230.2 of his 500.1 innings came in that uniform before he spent two seasons with the Cincinnati Reds.

He proved to be one of their better relievers as well, striking out 124 batters in just over 117 innings. He went 5-5 as a Red with an ERA of 4.28.

Hoffman then went on to spend two years with the Philadelphia Phillies before joining Toronto.

In his tenure there, he went 8-5 in just over 118 innings, posting a 2.29 ERA with 158 strikeouts and only nine home runs allowed.

Since his Major League debut towards the end of the 2016 season, he has taken the mound in 291 games and posted an ERA of 4.84 with 524 strikeouts and just a .250 batting average against.

Hoffman has gotten better as his career has gone on, and will be an important key to the Blue Jays' race for the division title.