An “immaculate inning” is when a pitcher gets all three outs in an inning via strikeout on nine pitches. Reds reliever Drew Storen accomplished the feat to close out last night’s win over the Orioles.
Immaculate innings aren’t super common but they’re not terribly rare either. Storen’s was the first since last July when Juan Nicasio of the Pirates did it. At least two pitchers did it in 2015. Six did it in 2014. It’s been documented 76 times in all, but pitch-by-pitch stats have not been around for all of baseball history, which means it has certainly happened more often than that.
But it’s still cool. At least the to pitcher who does it, his team and their fans. Not so cool to Jonathan Schoop, J.J. Hardy and Hyun Soo Kim of the O’s, who fell victim to Storen’s nine strikes. Watch:
[mlbvideo id="1299780183" width="600" height="336" /]
