With nine wins and just five loses, the Cincinnati Reds are MLB’s big, 2017 early-season surprise (well, them and the Brewers’ Eric Thames – hello, NL Central).
Indeed, they’re currently in first place of the NL Central, a full 2.0 games ahead of the World Series Champion Chicago Cubs and four games ahead of the last-place St. Louis Cardinals (that was maybe the weirdest sentence I’ve ever written).
And last night, Reds’ reliever Drew Storen solidified their latest win with an immaculate inning – that would be nine pitches, ALL STRIKES, for three straight strikeouts:
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How awesome is that to watch?
By my count, that was 1) looking strike, 2) swinging strike, 3) swinging strike for the first out; then 4) looking strike, 5) swinging strike, 6) looking strike for the second out; and finally, 7) looking strike, 8) looking strike, 9) swinging strike for the final out.
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And according to the Reds’ Twitter account, this is not something that’s happened all too often:
https://twitter.com/Reds/status/854688817185304576
Through his first 7.1 IP of the season, Storen now has 1.23 ERA and a 27.3% strikeout rate.
Alright Reds. How long can you keep it up?