Royals’ Brady Singer just missed throwing an immaculate inning on Wednesday
There have been two no-hitters this season, but no one has thrown an immaculate inning, but Royals rookie Brady Singer came close on Wednesday night.
When a pitcher strikes out all three batters in an inning on nine total pitches, it’s called an immaculate inning. There have only been 100 such frames in Major League Baseball history, per Baseball Almanac.
In the bottom of the first inning of the Royals’ 4-0 win at Detroit, Singer struck out Victor Reyes on three pitches. He went down looking. Will Castro fanned on three pitches, and threw his bat quite a distance on strike three.
Singer got two quick strikes on Cabrera, who then fouled off a pitch. The next pitch caught Cabrera looking.
Ten pitches, three strikeouts and very nearly an immaculate inning.
Singer said it would have been the first of his life.
“I don’t believe I have,” Singer said who added it “absolutely” would have been a thrill.
Here are the strikeouts, via Fox Sports Kansas City:
Singer’s last two starts have put him in good company among American League pitchers since 1975, as the Nick Kappel, the Royals’ manager of communications noted:
The Tigers took notice.
“He threw the heck out of the ball.” Detroit manager Ron Gardenhire said, per Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com. “He was locating everything, and when he did misfire, he’d come back. He’s got deception with that windup. The ball comes out really quick. That’s a quick arm, and he’s got the pitches.”
