Pedro's Immaculate Inning

Scott Cooper's Grand Slam

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Pedro posted this on Twitter today with the (hilarious) comment of "Work smarter, not harder." I thought you'd appreciate it, especially on a day when some of us are thinking about Green Fields of the Mind.

View: https://twitter.com/45PedroMartinez/status/1310598091947552768?s=20


Pedro pitched an immaculate inning on May 18, 2002 against the Seattle Mariners. He struck out Ichiro (!!), Mark McLemore and Ruben Sierra on nine pitches. I linked to the Wikipedia entry for pitchers who have thrown an immaculate inning, and.I was struck by the familiar names. Fat Billy from Ohio did it against Nomar, Valentin and Vaughn, also in the first in September of 1997.

Chris Sale did it twice in 2019. The list of pitchers who have accomplished the feat twice includes Lefty Grove, Sandy Koufax, Satchel Paige, Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson, Max Scherzer and Kevin Gausman. Koufax did it three times, and I had to look up Kevin Gausman.

Take a few minutes to watch the embedded clip, which also includes the WEEI call. We're lucky to have witnessed Pedro.
 
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santadevil

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Pedro posted this on Twitter today with the (hilarious) comment of "Work smarter, not harder." I thought you'd appreciate it, especially on a day when some of us are thinking about Green Fields of the Mind.

View: https://twitter.com/45PedroMartinez/status/1310598091947552768?s=20


Pedro pitched an immaculate inning on May 18, 2002 against the Seattle Mariners. He struck out Ichiro (!!), Mark McLemore and Ruben Sierra on nine pitches. I linked to the Wikipedia entry for pitchers who have thrown an immaculate inning, and.I was struck by the familiar names. Fat Billy from Ohio did it against Nomar, Valentin and Vaughn, also in the first in September of 1997.

Chris Sale did it twice in 2019. The list of pitchers who have accomplished the feat twice includes Lefty Grove, Sandy Koufax, Satchel Paige, Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson, Max Scherzer and Kevin Gausman. Koufax did it three times, and I had to look up Kevin Gausman.

Take a few minutes to watch the embedded clip, which also includes the WEEI call. We're lucky to have witnessed Pedro.
Thanks for posting this. I miss vintage Pedro, but I loved him

The Red Sox should sign Gausman this offseason, because the rest of those guys on that list aren't/weren't all that terrible pitchers
 

pedro1918

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I was at the first two confirmed Red Sox immaculate innings. Pedro above and Buchholz a decade later in Baltimore.

There have been 5 more Red Sox immaculate innings since Buchholz.
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

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The first time I ever knew an immaculate inning was a thing was when B-H Kim did it in 2002. I remember they said on the radio or on tv that they thought it was only about the 50th time it had ever happened and that a no-hitter was comparatively much more common (there were like 250 no hitters at the time).

Immaculate innings are still relatively rare but it's very noticeable how much more common they have become since 2014.
 

amRadio

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Was the first pitch to Sierra a cutter? Hard to tell without velo, but what a funky trajectory that pitch had for what looked like 90+
 

cannonball 1729

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Oh man - what a list that "immaculate inning" list is! It's replete with random pitchers who hold obscure records and/or famous moments. Let's see who we have:

- Sloppy Thurston (1923) would later go on to tie the record for most solo home runs allowed in a game with 6.
- Joe Oeschger (1921) pitched all 26 innings of the longest MLB game in history in 1920. He still has the highest game score in history, which makes sense given that he let up one run in 26 innings. Too bad he didn't get the win, since the game ended in a tie.
- Al Downing (1967) was, of course, the guy who gave up #715 to Hank Aaron.
- Old friend Tony Cloninger (1963) is still the only pitcher to hit two grand slams in a game.
- Milt Pappas (1971) was the first 200-game winner to never win 20 games in a season. Plus, he had that controversial no-hitter/near-perfect game where he walked the 27th batter on borderline pitches. (Apparently, he was angry about that for the rest of his life.)

To say nothing of the Koufaxes and Ryans and Hersheisers that you'd expect to be on the list.

(I know this thread is mostly about Pedro, but I couldn't let a list with Sloppy Thurston and Joe Oeschger on it go by without saying something.)
 

BaseballJones

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I wonder if there's ever been a MLB inning where a pitcher got 9 straight strikes all on swings and misses. I mean, in the entire history of baseball, there's been a hell of a lot of innings pitched, and you'd think that at some point, just ONE time, you'd have that. But I'm not sure.
 

Minneapolis Millers

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I wish we had been able to put together the 03/04 squads a few years earlier. Watching Vintage Pedro pitch with those teams would have been something Unreal.
 

djbayko

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The first time I ever knew an immaculate inning was a thing was when B-H Kim did it in 2002. I remember they said on the radio or on tv that they thought it was only about the 50th time it had ever happened and that a no-hitter was comparatively much more common (there were like 250 no hitters at the time).

Immaculate innings are still relatively rare but it's very noticeable how much more common they have become since 2014.
Three Ks on 9 pitches sure is something, but wouldn't 3 outs on 3 pitches be even more "immaculate"?

Has there ever been an inning with 3 K's on 9 swinging stikes (no fouls)? Or 9 strikes looking? I'm not sure which would be more impressive.
 

BlackJack

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Three Ks on 9 pitches sure is something, but wouldn't 3 outs on 3 pitches be even more "immaculate"?

Has there ever been an inning with 3 K's on 9 swinging stikes (no fouls)? Or 9 strikes looking? I'm not sure which would be more impressive.
The term immaculate always felt a little strange in this context but I think the point is that the fielders aren't involved. It's just the pitcher (and the catcher obviously!) against the hitter with the pitcher completely dominating.
 

effectivelywild

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Three Ks on 9 pitches sure is something, but wouldn't 3 outs on 3 pitches be even more "immaculate"?

Has there ever been an inning with 3 K's on 9 swinging stikes (no fouls)? Or 9 strikes looking? I'm not sure which would be more impressive.
You have to assume this is virtually no way you could have an immaculate inning with 9 called strikes. You're batter number 3, you're down 0-2 and the pitcher just struck out the previous two guys on six pitches without them ever swinging? And you're gonna leave your bat on your shoulder too? No way.

Although I guess conversely, if you're batter number 3---you just saw the guys in front of you whiff on 6 consecutive pitches and you're....not gonna take a pitch either?
 

edoug

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You have to assume this is virtually no way you could have an immaculate inning with 9 called strikes. You're batter number 3, you're down 0-2 and the pitcher just struck out the previous two guys on six pitches without them ever swinging? And you're gonna leave your bat on your shoulder too? No way.

Although I guess conversely, if you're batter number 3---you just saw the guys in front of you whiff on 6 consecutive pitches and you're....not gonna take a pitch either?
In Pedro's case, he could tell the batter what's coming and the batter still couldn't hit it.
 

edoug

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Theoretical question: If a pitcher were to strikeout 4 batters on 12 pitches in the same inning would it still be immaculate? Does it depend on K-WP or K-PB?
I was thinking about this situation. A PB or WP shouldn't really make it less significant. It may be flukier but it is much harder. Maybe call it a "Divine" inning?
 

edoug

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If it ever happens they will just name it after the guy that does it.
Probably but they don't have my gift of wordplay.
I am kidding about that obviously but I do like calling it a divine inning. It may never happen. So it's likely it doesn't matter.