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An immaculate inning occurs in baseball when a pitcher strikes out all three batters he faces in one inning with only nine pitches, the minimum possible. This has happened 125 times in Major League Baseball history; 116 pitchers have accomplished the feat.
The feat was first performed by John Clarkson of the Boston Beaneaters against the Philadelphia Quakers on June 4, 1889; and most recently by Payton Tolle of the Boston Red Sox on September 13, 2026. The term "immaculate inning" first appeared in newspapers after 2000.
Five pitchers have accomplished the feat more than once: Hall of Famers Sandy Koufax and Nolan Ryan, and active pitchers Chris Sale, Max Scherzer, and Kevin Gausman. Only Koufax, Sale, and Scherzer have completed it three times apiece. Only Ryan and Gausman have done it in both the American League and National League. Sale threw two immaculate innings in the same season, doing so in 2019 on May 8 and then on June 5, just 28 days later. In addition to being the only pitcher to throw an immaculate inning in three consecutive seasons, on June 30, 1962, Koufax accomplished his first immaculate inning while throwing his first no-hitter, the only player to do both in a single game.
Sloppy Thurston, Ryan, Wade Miley, Thomas Pannone, Reid Detmers, Hayden Wesneski, Brandon Young, and Tolle are the only rookies to have achieved the feat. Danny Jackson is the sole pitcher to have thrown an immaculate inning in the postseason, doing so in the seventh inning of Game 5 of the 1985 World Series. Jackson pitched a complete game, winning 6–1 and staving off elimination for the Kansas City Royals, who eventually won the series in seven games.
While an immaculate inning typically occurs with the bases empty, a nine-pitch, three-strikeout performance can also be accomplished by a relief pitcher who enters the game with one or more runners on base. On May 8, 2014, Brad Boxberger of the Tampa Bay Rays entered a game against the Baltimore Orioles with the bases loaded and proceeded to strike out the side with nine pitches. No player has ever struck out four batters on 12 pitches in an inning, with one of those batters reaching base on an uncaught third strike.
No pitcher has thrown more than one immaculate inning in a game. Jesús Sánchez of the Florida Marlins came within one pitch of that feat on September 13, 1998. Facing the Atlanta Braves, Sánchez struck out the side in the bottom of the second inning on 10 pitches and threw an immaculate inning in the bottom of the third inning: six consecutive strikeouts on 19 pitches. Just one game has seen two pitchers throw immaculate innings: on June 15, 2022, Phil Maton and Luis Garcia of the Houston Astros struck out the same three Texas Rangers batters (Nathaniel Lowe, Ezequiel Durán, and Brad Miller) in the second and seventh innings respectively. Just six weeks later, Durán was also the first strikeout victim of the very next immaculate inning pitched by Reid Detmers on July 31, 2022, making him the only hitter to be on the opposing end of an immaculate inning three times.
As of the current 2026 season, the Texas Rangers are the only team to never have thrown at least one immaculate inning in their history, and the Arizona Diamondbacks and Toronto Blue Jays are the only team never to have been on the receiving end of an immaculate inning.
