Typically striking guys out eats up more pitches than getting groundball outs though. A perfect game by all groundball outs or flyouts would take 27 pitches. Striking everyone out would take 81. I remember last year commenting on how much deeper Lannan would play getting groundball outs than the games where he was on a strikeout frenzy.
The downside to that is that league average BABIP is usually right around .300. You can get away with teams getting on less than that sometimes, but the K is still the best option for a pitcher. Pitch to contact is usually pitch to lose.
