Ryan Pepiot was immaculate for the Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday.
The right-hander threw the fourth immaculate inning in Rays history against the Boston Red Sox, striking out Connor Wong, Wilyer Abreu and Triston Casas in the fifth inning. An immaculate inning is when a pitcher strikes out all three batters on nine pitches total.
With only 117 in MLB history, an immaculate inning is rarer than a no-hitter or a cycle, even though it happens so quickly that fans might not realize what happened. Michael Kopech threw the only other immaculate inning in MLB this season for the Chicago White Sox in July.
MLB has had multiple immaculate innings in every full season since 2016. The last season without one was 2005, a sign of the growing emphasis on strikeouts in today’s game.
In Pepiot’s case, he pumped three straight four-seam fastballs against both Wong and Abreu before throwing a pair of changeups to Casas. Five of his nine pitches were swinging strikes, two were called strikes, and two were fouls.
He wasn’t so lucky in his next inning, though, as Trevor Story hit the first pitch of the sixth into the left-field stands to tie the game 1-1.
Despite the homer, the start ended up being one of the best of Pepiot’s young career. He threw six innings while striking out 12 and allowing two hits, one of them the Story homer. The Red Sox won 2-1.
Pepiot is finishing his first season with the Rays after arriving in the offseason via the Tyler Glasnow trade. Even without the immaculate inning, 2024 was shaping up to be a solid campaign for the 27-year-old and a continuation of the Rays’ tradition of landing solid returns in exchange for more expensive stars.