OT: Chris Sale Pitches Immaculate Inning
Boston Red Sox Pitcher Chris Sale is the 90th pitcher to throw 9 pitches and get 9 strikes in one inning. Full list of pitchers and more info on an "immaculate inning" here:
You can watch the replay when it is posted here: https://baseball.theater/
You may generally like that website also because it usually has the condensed games and recaps for each team (along with the highlights).
Final pitch here: https://cuts.diamond.mlb.com/FORGE/2019/2019-05/08/16c62cc0-a125a8ea-0d58db80-csvm-diamondx64-asset_1280x720_59_4000K.mp4
Wouldn't a true immaculate inning be three batters and three pitches?
People have recorded that also: http://www.baseball-almanac.com/feats/3_pitch_inning.shtml
I think the idea is that the batter can't even touch the ball. You know like when the kid struck out the Whammer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdtCFKVtSls
HE WAS THROWING SPITBALLS!!!
That ball's as dry as your granddaddy's scalp.
Or how about 1 pitch in an inning and 3 outs? That's really efficient! And it's happened three times in MLB history.
The last was in May 2008 - Keiichi Yabu (I'm a big baseball fan but don't recall this guy at all) came in w/ 2 on and 0 out. His first pitch resulted in a triple play.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SFN/SFN200805300.shtml
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZc4Nb8Gi5o&feature=youtu.be
Or how about that in combination with an unassisted triple play? Might need to play baseball a few hundred more years.
THAT would be something. Fernando Tatis-esque (he being the guy who once hit 2 Grand Slams in the same inning).
I am a complete nerd in this regard, but I love baseball minutia trivia. I was at 2 games that were very unique:
(1) Houston @ Pittsburgh in summer 1997. 2 Pittsburgh pitchers held Houston hitless and scoreless for 10 innings. But Pittsburgh hadn't scored themselves. Until a walk-off HR in the 10th. That is the only walk-off extra-inning no-hitter in MLB history (Florida had a walk-off no-hitter against Detroit a few years ago but that was a regular 9 inning game).
(2) Baltimore @ Detroit game in May 2003. BJ Ryan comes on, Orioles losing, 2 out and 1 on. Immediately picks off the runner. Orioles score a bunch of runs to take the lead, then a new Oriole pitcher came on. Ryan was the winner. Only the 2nd known instance of a MLB pitcher being the winning pitcher while throwing zero pitches.
Efficient yes. Immaculate no.
Good ole Sloppy Thurston.
I guess you could say pitches were on clearance that inning.
...or, that he kept his balls clean.
In fact, after only throwing that few pitches, his balls probably didn't even get "schweddy"
So someone makes an argument that the best inning pitched wasn’t an immaculate inning and doesn’t even look remarkable if you glance at the game’s box score. It was by Justin Verlander for the Tigers in 2012. An odd lead in, but this vid is absolutely worth your time.
I watched it -- interesting.
tl;dr is Justin Verlander is super angry about not getting a win from the Tigers when he was pitching so he goes out and throws insane pitches (in terms of spin rate and velocity) against the Indians in one inning.
Great video. But now I miss JV all over again.
Shoot. Agreed. I miss good baseball in Detroit.
Thanks for posting that. Very cool.
<sigh> JV
Fascinating...JV absolutely one of the best.
Wow. Thanks for posting!
I've seen that inning on Youtube multiple times, but I really liked that breakdown. Ridiculous
That's good stuff. Lack of run support is something that I'll always remember from his Detroit career. It seemed like they'd hit for Scherzer but Verlander would always get very little support.
It's a shame that group never won a World Series. They were heavy favorites against the Giants and then went out and laid a huge turd in the series. And then in '13 (?) they had the Red Sox on the ropes for a shot at another WS and served up a 9 inning grand slam to Big Papi to let them off the canvas. Sox eventually won it all I believe.
I remember the immaculate sit-up.
But did he cut up any uniforms with scissors?
Article cited needs editing .... “and no player has ever struck out four batters on twelve pitches in an inning.”....
Am I missing something crazy here? A four out inning? WTF?
Four strikeouts in one inning are possible. "A batter with two strikes on him takes a swing at strike three; however, the catcher does not field the ball cleanly, and instead of tagging the runner out, the runner reaches. The strikeout is recorded, but not the out."
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/feats/feats19.shtml
Here is the list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Major_League_Baseball_single-inning_strikeout_leaders
It happened just over two weeks ago on April 22, 2019. Luke Bard was the pitcher.
Just to go off a bit of a tangent - the dropped third strike rule is the dumbest rule in baseball and serves no purpose other than to reward the batter who just K'd. When your kids play little league/travel ball, this rule becomes even more frustrating as it happens quite often at that level.
Interesting tangent. Weirdly, it's just about the oldest rule in the book.
The oldest surviving baseball rule book (the Knickerbocker rules, 1845, a direct ancestor of the current rule book) has a provision that the batter can run to first on a dropped third strike. That's before games were 9 innings--the game was played until a team reached 21. That's before there were called strikes or balls--only a swing & miss was a strike. That's when you could catch a ball on the first bounce and still get the batter out.
The pitcher was throwing underhand in a sport that would look to us like slow pitch softball without gloves, but there was that dropped third strike rule. Why? Who knows. But the rules back then didn't highlight the pitcher's confrontation with the batter, they highlighted the fielders' confrontation with the baserunners. The excitement in the game was in baserunning and fielding, and I guess the rulemakers figured the more runners the better.
Wow, an old dog can learn a new trick! Thanks!
Dropped 3rd strike on 3rd batter, makes it to first. Pitcher is credited with a strike out even if the guy makes first.3 strikes to 4th hitter.
Oops, a hair late...
There's actually no limit to the number of strikeouts you can record in an inning, although I believe four remains the record. Doing more than four without allowing any balls to be put in play would be an even more difficult challenge -- the batter is out on a third strike if first base is occupied and less than two are out, whether the ball is caught or not.
Big deal.
My son is 15 and has done it four times this year. He has nasty movement on his fastball and the catchers have had their problems. He’s struck out 23 in 9.1 innings of work so far. Not to brag. Who am I kidding, of course it’s bragging. I’m a proud dad.
Sounds like a future Wolverine
*half-inning
Dang I do this on The Show sometimes but you know...it's The Show.