Marlins’ Cal Quantrill throws 116th Immaculate Inning in MLB history

Billy Heyen

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Marlins’ Cal Quantrill throws 116th Immaculate Inning in MLB history image

There's nothing with a better name in baseball than the Immaculate Inning.

Nine pitches, nine strikes, three outs in an inning. No balls out of the strike zone. No foul balls to extend an at bat. Just a pitcher outdoing each hitter with a trifecta of maximum efficiency strikeouts.

On Sunday, Miami Marlins right-hander Cal Quantrill accomplished the feat against the Tampa Bay Rays.

It was the 116th Immaculate Inning in MLB history, an average of fewer than one per season.

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You can see the sequence there. The Rays only fouled off one pitch, took a few and had a handful of swings-and-misses.

Quantrill is a second-generation big leaguer, the son of long-time pitcher Paul.

This is the seventh year in the majors for the younger Quantrill, who has also pitched for Cleveland, San Diego and Colorado.

Baseball is a mightily improbable game. Even after Sunday's outing, Quantrill has a 7.00 ERA.

But on Sunday, in this one standalone inning, Quantrill was the best pitcher on the planet. He was immaculate.

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Billy Heyen

Billy Heyen is a freelance writer with The Sporting News. He is a 2019 graduate of Syracuse University who has written about many sports and fantasy sports for The Sporting News. Sports reporting work has also appeared in a number of newspapers, including the Sandusky Register and Rochester Democrat & Chronicle