An immaculate inning is when a pitcher strikes out three batters in an inning on exactly nine pitches. That’s three pitches per batter, leaving no room for balls and no time for fouls on two strikes. Dellin Betances threw an immaculate inning during Wednesday’s 2-0 loss against the Detroit Tigers following a three-hour, 11-minute rain delay. But do we care?
The immaculate inning, like many feats in baseball, used to be something we rarely saw. Sometimes we went years without seeing one, like after the 1979 season, it wasn’t until 1984 that someone was able to pull one off again.