[Ads-l] Immaculate Inning

[Bill Mullins]

Last night, two pitchers on the Houston Astros each threw an "immaculate inning" during a game, the first time it has happened twice in a Major League game.

An immaculate inning is a half-inning of baseball in which a pitcher strikes out 3 opposing batters with nine pitches.  It seems to be of fairly recent coinage.  The earliest I find is:

2008 Fort Lauderdale FL _South Florida Sun Sentinel_ 19 Jun 3C/4

Highlighting Felix Hernandez's 7-1/3-inning performance in the Mariner's 5-4 win over the Marlins late Tuesday night was the 42nd immaculate inning in baseball history.


Note:  the most recent previous such feat was done by Rich Harden of the Athletics on 6/8/2008.  Concerted searching for the phrase at that date was not productive, but it shows up regularly since Hernandez on 6/17.  I suspect it was first used in this context between those two games.

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