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How Many Of You Know What An “Immaculate Inning” Is?

Subtitle:

What Do Sandy Koufax and Chris Sale Have In Common?

Reading this morning’s Chicago Sun-Times, I learned that Boston’s Chris Sale threw what’s called an “immaculate inning,” tying Sandy Koufax as the only pitchers in baseball history to have thrown three in the entire history of baseball.  Upon reading about this, my baseball history “automatic alarm system” went off again. As your friendly resident baseball historian, I knew I’d be remiss in my duties if I didn’t look deeper into this story. Let’s face it…whenever your name is mentioned in the same sentence with Sandy Koufax, you must have done something extremely noteworthy. 

You Learn Something New About This Game Every day!

 I have to admit that, as long as I’ve been following this game (don’t ask how many years!), I’ve never heard of an “immaculate inning.” With many years of Catholic education under my belt, I was of course familiar with the term, “Immaculate Conception.” But an “immaculate inning”? What gives here? Was it something to do with the Pope? Was he in attendance at the game? Did it have something to do with Holy Water? And the bigger question was, how could I have missed it after all these years?

Well, with a little research, “my prayers were answered,” so to speak. I found that an “immaculate inning” is one in which “a pitcher in his half-inning on the

mound, throws only nine pitches, each of which is a strike and thus strikes out three consecutive batters.” It’s rarer than hitting for a cycle, triple plays, no-hitters, and many other baseball rarities.

Reading further, I learned Sale’s gem occurred in the third inning of the Red Sox’ 12-2 rout of the Twins on Thursday night. In that inning, he struck out Nick Gordon, Andrelton Simmons, and Rob Refsnyder on three pitches each. Refsnyder “…was fooled badly by a slider in the dirt on the final pitch of the inning.” According to the story, Sale had also thrown one on May 8, 2019 against the Orioles, and then did it again a month later against the Royals.

How Rare Is An Immaculate Inning?

I also learned that in all of baseball history, only 95 different pitchers have accomplished the feat, for a total of 104 innings. If someone reading this is capable of doing the research, maybe he or she can come up with an approximate number of innings that have been played in all of major league baseball history (from 1876) and we can divide that by the number of immaculate innings. Then we can figure out how rare it actually is. My guess is that it’s in the .001% range of innings played.

Only seven players in all of baseball history have thrown more than one: Lefty

Grove (2), Nolan Ryan (2), Randy Johnson (2), Max Scherzer (2), Kevin Gausman (2), Sandy Koufax (3), and now Chris Sale (3). Until Chris Sale, Sandy Koufax was the only player in major league history to have thrown three. Come to think of it, with only seven pitchers having done it for a total of 16 innings, multiple immaculate innings may be one of the rarest of all baseball feats.

A Couple Tidbits About Immaculate Innings:

• A record eight immaculate innings were thrown in 2017.
• Of the 95 pitchers, 73 are right-handed and 22 left-handed.
• Five pitchers – Roger Clemens, Bob Gibson, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martínez and Nolan Ryan – are also members of the 3,000 strikeout club.
• Sloppy Thurston, Wade Miley and Ryan are the only rookies to have accomplished the feat.
• Nolan Ryan and Kevin Gausman are the only pitchers to have thrown one in both the American League and National League.
• Danny Jackson is the only pitcher to throw one in the World Series.
• Twelve of the players who threw one have been elected to the Hall of Fame.
• The first one was thrown by Hall-of-Famer John Clarkson of the Boston Beaneaters on June 4, 1889 against the Philadelphia Quakers.

Sandy Koufax’s Career

So all this gives me a chance to say a little about the career of the great Dodger lefty, Sandy Koufax. In his 12-season career, the seven-time All-Star had a 165–87 record (.654) with a 2.76 ERA, 2,396 strikeouts, 137 complete games, and 40 shutouts. Koufax’s 2,396 career strikeouts ranked seventh in history at the time of his retirement. He and Nolan Ryan are the only two pitchers inducted into the Hall of Fame who had more strikeouts than innings pitched.

Sandy was the first pitcher to average fewer than seven hits allowed per nine innings pitched (6.79). He also became the second pitcher in history to have two games with 18 or more strikeouts, and the first to have eight games with 15 or more strikeouts. Over his last ten seasons, from 1957 to 1966, batters hit an anemic .203 against him, with an incredibly low .271 on-base percentage, and a .315 slugging average.

 Koufax’s amazing run from 1961 to 1966 remains a period of brilliance almost unmatched in baseball history. During this time Koufax won five straight ERA titles, four strikeout crowns, three Cy Young awards, a National League MVP award, three seasons with 25-plus wins, and four no-hitters. The last came in 1965 and was a perfect game against the Cubs.

If you’d like to see a list of the 95 pitchers who have thrown Immaculate Innings, here’s a link:

Gary Livacari 

Information: Excerpts edited from Chicago Sun-Times, August 27, 2021.