Looking is backwards. A looking strikeout is subjective to the home plate umpire that night. A swinging strikeout is objective. No doubt that he missed on that third strike; that's a K.
K=swinging forward.
Backwards K=looking backwards at the umpire and being K'ed
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The backwards K is to signify struk out looking versus the standard K that is strike out swinging so then you can keep them straight in the score books they used to be weighted differently as for how good/bad pitchers/batters were.