Holy Cow, There Really Was a 2 Pitch Inning in Pro Ball!

You bet your sweet pepper grinder there was! Back on July 29, 2021 pitching prospect Hayden Deal of the Rome Braves stunned the baseball world by recording an out on just TWO pitches. I know, cue the spittake right? After reading about this freaky feat I nearly dropped my PS5 controller. Let‘s break down exactly how the Hayden Deal became a historic renegade…

See, in the top of the 10th inning against the Asheville Tourists, Deal forced the first batter Joe Davis to ground right into a tailor-made 6-4-3 double play. One pitch, two outs. Crazy enough right? But then on the very next pitch, Deal got Terrin Vavra to also ground into a 4-6-3 twin killing! Two pitches…three outs. An immaculate inning this was not. It was straight up inconceivable!

Just listen to these deets around the rarity this feat from the Baseball Bible…

I mean, the chances of a perfect game and no-no are super slim, but nowhere near the lottery odds of a 2-pitch storm like Deal provided. Seeing back-to-back GDPs alone is kinda like finding a shiny Pokémon. But to pull it off on just TWO flings?? We‘re talking 1 in a million type vibes. This wasn‘t just a glitch in the Matrix – it was Deja Vu and Free Fall colliding!

Now we all know the MLB slate would bug out if this occurred on the big boy level. Can you imagine Jacob deGrom (love that nasty slider!) or some other fireballer pulling this off? Reddit and Twitter would straight up combust into memes and mayhem. It probably crashed some minor league box scores just going down on the farm!

Keeping It 💯: A 1 Pitch Inning Ain‘t Happening

Alright lets ordinance drop some truth tabs…could a 1 pitch inning ever go down? As much as my gamer heart wants to believe, lets check the rulebook debug on this one. Turns out each pitcher needs to actually throw ONE pitch per inning to face their 3 hitters. So the true speedrun strats say the minimum is 2 pitches!

I know, massive bummer for the pro baseball Any% crowd. But even a 2 pitch blitz is some rogue legendary stuff. My mans Hayden will forever be a patron saint of freak feats! But for now, a 1 pitch 3-out massacre remains only a glitch in our wildest baseball dreams…RIP.

Other Ridiculous Pitching Records that ROFLSTOMP Reality!

Look, I know a 2 pitch inning shakes the skies. But would you believe even crazier hurler records have happened in MLB lore? Get ready to smash that follow button and go full tilt on these lethal code breaks!

• Four Strikeouts in ONE Inning – Chuck Finley of my beloved Angels first achieved this glitch in 1986. Turns out if the third strike is a wild pitch, the batter can still reach first to keep the inning alive for more K carnage!
• A 27 Strikeout Game – I know right? My head exploded too learning about minor leaguer Ron Necciai punching out 27 fools in 1952 while playing for the Bristol Twins. An absolute cheat code performance.
• Consecutive Scoreless Innings Streak – Now THIS is the true test of pitching endurance. Dodger legend Orel Hershiser threw an MLB record 59 straight innings without allowing a single run back in 1988. Over two months of zeroes!

Believe it or not, there‘s even more statistical insanity where that came from. A pair of immaculate innings in one game (thanks Phil Maton and Luis Garcia!) or a dude named Johnny Vander Meer throwing no-hitters in back-to-back starts. I already ordered 5 Red Bulls just writing this section!

But you get the point though – baseball can get mega weird and deliver shocking speed run categories we never knew were possible. So while a 1 pitch inning might not be in the cards, we can‘t ever doubt a lightning bolt of fortune striking again. The baseball gods have wild imagination after all!

Now if you‘ll excuse me, I need to boot up MLB The Show and try simming a 2 pitch inning for the next six hours…you know, for science!

Keep grinding gamers,

• SwingSavage923