Justin Verlander struck out 12 batters on Tuesday night to become baseball's active leader is strikeouts.

Verlander has 3,086 strikeouts in his career, allowing him to move past Max Scherzer for the lead. He also surpassed John Smoltz for 17th place on the all-time strikeout list.

"I don't know if Scherzer counts in that because he's still playing and I'm still playing, and we're kind of ping-ponging each other, but Smoltzy is somebody who I idolized growing up," Verlander said. "Pretty surreal moment to hear that name."