MLB: Nationals: Max Scherzer Pitches Second Immaculate Inning

Pitcher Max Scherzer continues to impress. In the 4-2 victory of his Washington Nationals over the Tampa Bay Rays, the right-hander not only clinched his tenth victory, he also pitched an “immaculate inning” – for the second time in his career!

Scherzer won the last two Cy Young Awards of the National League and is one of only ten pitchers to have at least three of them in the showcase. Now he is also one of only five pitchers who have pitched more than one “immaculate inning”. The others are Hall-of-Famer!

In the sixth inning Scherzer played Johnny Field, Christian Arroyo and Daniel Robertson and managed three strikeouts with only nine pitches.

“To be honest, I didn’t know it happened,” Scherzer admitted to reporters. “Then I left the field and thought to myself,’Wait a minute, I think that was just one. So yeah, that’s pretty cool.”

Scherzer succeeded in his first “immaculate inning” against the Philadelphia Phillies in May 14, 2017. At the time, he struck out Cesar Hernandez, Odubel Herrera and Aaron Altherr each with a total of only nine pitches.

The “immaculate inning” was not the only special thing about Scherz’s start. He scored a total of 13 strikeouts in eight innings (5 H, 2 ER) and was the first pitcher this season to reach the ten-victory mark (10-1).

He also threw 81 of his 99 pitches for strikes. This corresponds to a rate of 81.8 percent, which is the best rate for all Starting Pitcher 2018. At the same time, it was the highest strike rate in Scherzer’s career, which now includes 332 starts (regular and post season). And Scherzer threw a strike with the first pitch in 25 out of 28 cases, setting the second highest value in his career.

“It couldn’t be better,” said National Manager Dave Martinez after introducing his pitching aces. “He was outstanding tonight.”

This article was published without previous view by the Major League Baseball.