Andrew Kittredge’s first two appearances with the Chicago Cubs have been good. His third look was a catastrophe.
His fourth look? The sixth immaculate inning in franchise historical past.
The veteran reliever completed the feat of three strikeouts on 9 pitches on Wednesday within the seventh inning of a sport towards the Cincinnati Reds. His victims: Austin Hays, Gavin Lux and Tyler Stephenson, all of whom went down swinging.
Immaculate innings are one of many lesser-known single-game accomplishments in baseball, however the truth that there have solely been 120 in MLB historical past places them nearer to good video games (24) than no-hitters (326) on the rarity scale. They’re changing into extra frequent, although, with 13 prior to now 4 seasons.
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Cal Quantrill of the Miami Marlins and Brandon Younger of the Baltimore Orioles are answerable for the opposite two immaculate innings this season.
Kittredge, whom the Cubs acquired on the commerce deadline for infield prospect Wilfri De La Cruz, entered the historical past books simply sooner or later after getting booed off the sector at Wrigley Subject. He allowed 4 earned runs in an inning of labor, taking the loss in a 5-1 Reds victory.
Immaculate innings generally tend to sneak up on people who find themselves watching the sport, and even those enjoying in it. The Cubs sales space praised Kittredge for bouncing again by placing out the facet, till a graphic confirmed the phrases “immaculate inning” and Cubs catcher Carson Kelly admitted he didn’t realize what was happening until pitch No. 9:
“The final pitch [is when I realized]. I used to be like, ‘Wow. We went sinker, sinker, slider; sinker, sinker, slider; sinker, sinker… slider?’ It was fairly cool to be part of that.”
Kittredge is a nine-year MLB veteran and was stable in his half-season with Orioles — stable sufficient in actual fact to get traded because the workforce determined to punt on a misplaced 2025 season. He was one in every of 4 gamers acquired by the Cubs on the deadline, alongside fellow reliever Taylor Rogers, utility man Willi Castro and beginning pitcher Michael Soroka, whose status is very up in the air right now.
