12/01/2024
How can a pitcher strike out the side on just 8 pitches?
The scenario of your question has probably played out in MLB
Here's how this works, it is really simple.
I will make up a fictitious case, but it harkens to a somewhat similar scenario that actually occurred.
Fictitious case:
G. H. Ruth is pitching, first pitch of the game “Steeeerike” says the home plate umpire. Ruth is feeling his oats. He zips in another fastball that he is very pleased with, it has some movement on it. The ump unanimatedly says, “Ball”.
Ruth is enraged by the call and he also hurt his arm on the pitch and comes towards home plate objecting to the call while holding his pitching wrist with his right hand. As the trainer is coming out of the dugout, the umpire says “Your day is over, you're outta here”
The count is 1–1 on the batter.
Ernest Grady Shore takes over for the clubhouse-bound G. H. Ruth and proceeds to throw 2 strikes to the leadoff batter, getting him out on strikes, and goes on to strike out the next two batters on 6 consecutive pitches.
Stats for this fictitious case:
Total pitches thrown by reliever Shore = 8
Number of strikeouts credited to Shore = 3
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Here is the similar, but slightly different, scenario that famously occurred when Ernie Shore relieved Babe Ruth in a 1917 game.
Babe walked the first batter, disputed the call and was ejected and removed from the field for punching the home plate umpire. Ernie Grady Shore came in and he and his fielders got all 27 outs - Perfect! But, of course, not an official perfect game.
👇
The quasi-perfect game that started ... after the Babe punched an umpire
While there are 19 combined no-hitters in Major League history, we can safely say that the one tossed by Babe Ruth and Ernie Shore on June 23, 1917, is unlike any of the others. It doesn't count as one of the 24 perfect games in AL/NL history, but it holds
While there are 19 combined no-hitters in Major League history, we can safely say that the one tossed by Babe Ruth and Ernie Shore on June 23, 1917, is unlike any of the others. It doesn't count as one of the 24 perfect games in AL/NL history, but it holds
