More Fun With Baseball Rarities: Cubs Andrew Kittredge Throws an “Immaculate inning”!

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More Fun With Baseball Rarities!

Cubs Andrew Kittredge Throws an “Immaculate inning”!

Reading about the Cub game against the Reds last night, I discovered that the Cubs Andrew Kittredge threw what’s called an “Immaculate Inning.” For those of you who are uninitiated to exactly what this rare baseball phenomenon (as I was until relatively recently), an immaculate inning is when a pitcher strikes out three batters in an inning and throws only nine pitches, all strikes.

(In the featured photo, we see Andrew Kittredge and catcher Carson Kelly after Kittredge’s immaculate inning).

Kittredge’s gem occurred in the seventh inning of the Cubs 6-1 victory. He fanned Austin Hays, Gavin Lux, and Tyler Stephenson in succession on nine pitches. He was the first Cub to throw one since Hayden Wesneski on September 22, 2022. According to Cub historian Ed Hartig, only four other Cubs in history have thrown one: LaTroy Hawkins (September 11, 2004), Lynn McGlothen (August 25, 1979), Bruce Sutter (September 8, 197), and Milt Pappas (September 24, 1971). (1)

I Love Baseball rarities As I Discover What an Immaculate Inning Is!

I first learned about immaculate innings back in 2021 when Chris Sale threw one, tying Sandy Koufax as the only pitchers in baseball history to have thrown three in the entire history of baseball.  At the time, I did a little research and wrote an essay about “immaculate innings,” parts of which I’m reposting here:

As long as I’ve been following this game (don’t ask how many years!), I had never heard of an “immaculate inning” until Chris Sale threw his on August 26, 2021. 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.”

How Rare Is An Immaculate Inning?

I also learned that in all of baseball history, only 107 different pitchers have accomplished the feat, for a total of 116 innings [Ed. note: numbers updated to current date]. 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 [Ed. note: I think it’s around four million], 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 six players in all of baseball history have thrown more than one: Lefty Grove (2), Nolan Ryan (2), Max Scherzer (3), Kevin Gausman (2), Sandy Koufax (3), and Chris Sale (3). Chris Sale, Max Scherzer, and Sandy Koufax are only players in major league history to have thrown three. Come to think of it, with only six pitchers having done it for a total of 15 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.
• The term “immaculate inning” first appeared in newspapers after 2000
• 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.
•  Koufax accomplished his first immaculate inning while throwing his first no-hitter, the only player to do both in a single game
• As of the current 2025 season, the Rangers and the Minnesota Twins are the only teams to never have thrown at least one immaculate inning in their history.

If you’d like to see a list of the 107 pitchers who have thrown Immaculate Innings, here’s a link.

Gary Livacari 

We’d love to hear what you think about this or any other related baseball history topic…please leave comments below.

Photo Credits: All from Google search

Information: (1) Chicago Sun-Times, August 7, 2025; and Immaculate Innings Wikipedia page

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