There is no more speculation, Max Scherzer is the king pitcher of Major League Baseball right now. Already a two-time defending National League Cy Young, he is building his resume for a third straight and fourth Cy Young overall.
On Tuesday, in route to a 4-2 win over the Tampa Bay Rays, the Washington Nationals’ ace threw his second immaculate inning of his career. He blazed through the Rays in the sixth inning with nine pitches, nine strikes, three strikeouts. Johnny Field, Christian Arroyo and Daniel Robertson each went down swinging.
List of @MLB players known to have recorded at least TWO career immaculate innings:
Lefty Grove (HoF)
Sandy Koufax (HoF)
Nolan Ryan (HoF)
Randy Johnson (HoF)
Max Scherzer (Active) pic.twitter.com/q4iaTcNpnm— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) June 6, 2018
Scherzer joined elite company of pitchers who have recorded at least two career immaculate innings. Everyone else on the list is in the Hall of Fame.
Scherzer finished the outing allowing two runs in eight innings while striking out 13 in the process on 99 pitches, throwing 81 strikes. He now has nine games of 10+ strikeouts this season and it was his 73rd such game of his career. He also recorded his MLB-leading 10th win of the season and now has 133 strikeouts on the season, also tops in MLB.
May 14, 2017 was the other time Scherzer completed an immaculate inning, against the Philadelphia Phillies. He did so an inning after taking a 100 mph liner off his left knee.
