Max Scherzer's second career 'immaculate inning' puts him in historic company
There aren’t enough accolades for Washington Nationals ace Max Scherzer.
The five-time All-Star and reigning back-to-back National League Cy Young winner is playing the best baseball of his career and making a strong case for being the best pitcher of his generation.
The Tampa Bay Rays got a taste of Scherzer’s finest on Tuesday, most notably Johnny Field, Christian Arroyo and Daniel Robertson, who went down in order on nine pitches in the sixth inning without putting the ball in play.
That’s right. Scherzer threw nine pitches for nine strikes and three strikeouts for what is known in some circles as an immaculate inning.
It’s the second time Scherzer has achieved the feat in his career, which rightly puts him in rarified air with some of the best to ever play the game.
#Nationals Max Scherzer joins Lefty Grove, Sandy Koufax, Nolan Ryan, and Randy Johnson as the only pitchers in baseball history with multiple Immaculate Innings.
— Ryan M. Spaeder (@theaceofspaeder) June 6, 2018
Sandy Koufax, Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson and Lefty Grove make for pretty solid company. They’re all Hall of Famers and will most assuredly be joined by Scherzer when his career is done.
In total, Scherzer allowed two runs in eight innings of a 4-2 win over the Rays Tuesday. He struck out 13 while walking none to improve his record on the season to 10-1 to go along with a career-best ERA of 1.95, a 0.83 WHIP and an astonishing 13.6 strikeouts per nine innings. Of the 99 pitches he threw Tuesday, 81 of them were strikes.
So, yeah. Scherzer was dealing, even by his lofty standards.
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