4 strike outs in an inning?

When the Mets no hit the Yankees how was this possible?

That would be the Houston Astros, not the Mets. The Mets have still never thrown a no-hitter.

Anyway, the answer is that Dotel struck out Juan Rivera to lead off. Then Alfonso Soriano struck out swinging on a big curveball. But it was a wild pitch, and rolled far enough from the catcher for Soriano to run to first. (If strike three gets away from the catcher, the batter can attempt to advance. It’s still a strikeout for the pitcher, but not an out.) Then Derek Jeter and Jason Giambi struck out. Four Ks in one inning. (In fact, those four were part of a streak of eight straight Yankee hitters who struck out. Ick.)
That, roughly, is probably how it’s happened all 44 times.

Thanks. I just assumed a strike out meant the catcher had held the strike for an out. In that case how is the runner scored as reaching first, is it an error? If so whose?

It depends - it will be either a passed ball or a wild pitch.

Recently, there was a Dodgers game in which Darren Dreifort recorded 7 strikeouts in the first 2 innings.

How is it possible for a pitch to be both a strike and a wild pitch? I would wager that a dropped third strike is always going to be scored a passed ball-- catcher’s fault as opposed to the pitcher’s.

But, please, correct me if I’m wrong.

Happy

The pitcher could throw it so badly that it’s a wild pitch - but if the batter swings at it and misses (and really, how likely is he to hit a wild pitch), then it can be called as a strike as well. The likelihood of a batter swinging at one of these is left to the statisticians, but it happened in this game.

(Go Astros!)

Duh. Didn’t think of that.

Thanks.

Yep.

Regardless of how good or bad the pitch is…if the batter swings at it the pitch is forever recorded as a strike.

For that matter, for pitch count analysis if the batters swings and makes a safe hit it’s recorded as the pitcher throwing a ‘strike’ as well.

Unless he fouls it off and there are already two strikes… :smiley:

Zev Steinhardt

Knuckleballs are notoriously hard to catch, even if perfect strikes.

This becomes even more likely when a batter like Vlad Guerrero with a strikezone the size of the stadium is up to bat.

Neener neener, Zev!

Even that gets counted as a ‘strike’ for pitch count purposes!

Every time I’ve seen this happen in the majors, the pitch was a particularly nasty curveball or splitter that broke down so sharply it fooled both the batter AND the catcher, hit the dirt, and skipped by the glove.

There is, of course, no theoretical limit to the number of strikeouts a pitcher could record in an inning. Once there’s two outs, batters can advance to first on a missed third strike even if there’s a man on base (with less than two out and a man on first the dropped third strike rule does not apply.) However, I do not know if any pitcher has ever struck out five or more men in an inning.

There hasn’t been any (at the major league level, at least). Four is the record, held by many.

Zev Steinhardt

I vaguely recall that one (or maybe both) of the knuckleballing Niekro brothers racked up five strikeouts in an inning in spring training. (I could be mistaken.)

I did this all the time in various youth leagues, when I was a kid. If I had two strikes on me, and the pitcher uncorked one that was sure to go to the backstop, I’d swing, while taking a step towards first base. About 85% of the time, I’d reach. I wasn’t a good hitter, so it was worth a shot, and usually it worked out.

Let me clarify: I’d reach base, not the ball. I’d strike out, but get on base.

On a dropped third strike where the batter reaches first, it can be scored in four different ways:

  1. K + WP
  2. K + PB
  3. K + E2 (catcher makes wild throw to first)
    and the rarest
  4. K + 2-E3 (first baseman drops throw from catcher)

I’ve seen 1, 2, and 3 several times. I’ve never seen #4, but in theory it could happen.

another guy who has done it is Mark Wohlers, for the Braves a couple of years ago, back before he developed his major control problems (though I guess a certain lack of control is a bit of a bonus when you’re trying to strike out 4 in an inning - and a poor defensive catcher helps too)