Royals prospect records five strikeouts in just one inning

This sort of seems like it’s out of the movie “Bull Durham” with Malcolm Van Buren playing the part of Nuke LaLoosh, who didn’t have, well, terrific command.

Van Buren, a Royals prospect, was pitching Wednesday night for Rookie League Burlington and admitted he wasn’t at his sharpest in the seventh inning of the game against Elizabethton.

“Honestly,” Van Buren told MiLB.com, “I was kind of struggling with command at the time.”

Despite that, Van Buren managed to strike out five batters in just one inning, thanks to two dropped third strikes.

Elizabethton’s Seth Gray struck out to open the inning and Parker Phillips fanned, but he reached on a dropped third strike and a throwing error by the Royals’ Jesus Atencio.

Matt Wallner then struck out, as did Trevor Jensen, but Jensen reached on a wild pitch. Anthony Prato followed by drawing a walk to load the bases. Van Buren escaped the jam by striking out Will Holland on three pitches.

Burlington announcer Brandon Ross shared the historic moment:

“That’s pretty cool, honestly,” Van Buren told MiLB.com. “It’s definitely not something I’d ever say I expected to do.”

Van Buren was a 31st-round pick by the Royals in the 2016 draft.

The major-league record for strikeouts in an inning is four, but there was an instance of a team doing it in the minors in 2016.