Juan Perez and the Immaculate Inning

by dajafi on Jul 9, 2011 11:48 AM EDT

Juan Perez: he's in there somewhere. (Photo by Drew Hallowell/Getty Images)

By now you've heard that Phillies lefty reliever Juan Perez did something pretty unusual last night: he struck out three straight Braves batters--Jason Heyward, Nate McLouth, and Wilkin Ramirez--on nine pitches in the top of the 10th inning. As Perez got to five straight strikes, then six, it occurred to me I might be about to see something I hadn't seen through thousands of baseball games watched over more than thirty years... but I didn't realize quite how rare was Perez's accomplishment. Turns out his "immaculate inning" is only the 46th in baseball history. By contrast, there have been 271 no-hitters thrown since records were kept.

As noted in the game recap, Perez is the first Phillie to accomplish the feat since Andy Ashby did it in his second major-league start against the Reds in June 1991. (The Reds were on the receiving end of another one two and a half months later, though it's slightly less shameful to have a young David Cone do it to you than Ashby.) Before Ashby, no Phillie had ever struck out the side on nine pitches, though Rube Waddell had done it once and Lefty Grove twice for the Philadelphia Athletics.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the Phils have had it done to them on a few occasions over their checkered history: in fact, the first immaculate inning on record was thrown against the Philadelphia Quakers, as the Phils were then known, in 1889. The team was nine-pitch whiffed again in 1921, 1971, 1991, and most recently in 2002 by Diamondbacks reliever Byung-Hyun Kim, which I think might have been when I started referring to that pitcher as "Butthole Kid." Those five occasions are the most of any club, though the Marlins have had it done to them three times in 114 fewer seasons of play.

If Perez isn't the most obscure pitcher to accomplish the feat, he's damn close. The list includes Hall of Famers Waddell, Grove (twice), Dazzy Vance, Jim Bunning, Sandy Koufax (twice), Nolan Ryan (twice), Bob Gibson, and Bruce Sutter, plus future Hall of Famers Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez and well known stars like Cone, Ron Guidry, and Milt Pappas. Perez is the first pitcher to do it in his first major-league win.

Career highlight? Yeah, probably. The guy is 32, after all, and isn't known for his control. But if nothing else, he goes into Phillies lore as the answer to a great trivia question and creator of a fantastic memory in a big win.

Tweet Comment 13 comments | 1 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

I missed seeing this happen. I also missed seeing the Bruntlett triple play. Gah . . .

by ThinMountainAir on Jul 9, 2011 1:08 PM EDT reply actions

damn.

by j reed on Jul 9, 2011 1:36 PM EDT up reply actions

Running Into Trouble

Calling them the Philadelphia Quakers. One of the Phillies only claims to fame in their giant, losing history is that they’ve always been in the same city with the same name. Saying they were once called the Philadelphia Quakers takes us from a giant losing franchise with some historical significance to a giant losing franchise.

They’ve been called the Quakers and the Bluejays, but it’s always been in addition to the Phillies. Now our record is intact!

It's in his wheelhouse!!
Carlos Ruiz, My Nickname is Chooch.

by Dr. Steve on Jul 9, 2011 1:41 PM EDT reply actions

Also

I think it’s nice and smart that the Phillies have A’s players on their Wall of Fame, as if you combine the A’s early history with the Phillies history from 1950 on, you wind up with not that bad a legacy. Something you can probably show your kids and say “We don’t suck”.

It's in his wheelhouse!!
Carlos Ruiz, My Nickname is Chooch.

by Dr. Steve on Jul 9, 2011 1:48 PM EDT up reply actions

okay

though I’ve long wondered how a team can have two names at once. Doesn’t it get confusing fast?

Also, my way of dealing with the wretched part of Phillies history is by discounting everything before 1948 or so. This wipes out the 1915 pennant, Grover Cleveland Alexander and Chuck Klein, but also 30 years of sub-.400 play. Seems fair. (Alas, it still leaves them as the last team to integrate—but they mostly just hurt themselves through that reprehensible choice, by limiting what the Whiz Kids core accomplished).

by dajafi on Jul 9, 2011 11:21 PM EDT up reply actions

Back in the 1880s, there were teams that had “City Cities” names – the Philadelphia Philadelphians joined the league in 1883 as a replacement for the defunct Worcester Worcesters. Since this sounded pretty damn stupid, the teams had nicknames – the Worcesters had been known as the Brown Stockings and the Ruby Legs at various times. The Philadelphians were nicknamed the Quakers. Since there was trouble fitting “Philadelphians” into some newspaper headlines, it got shortened to Phillies, which became official in 1890. Thus, this is the 121st year of there being a team called the Philadelphia Phillies.

The seven other teams when Philadelphia joined the NL:
Boston Beaneaters (later Boston Doves, Boston Rustlers, Boston Braves, Boston Bees, Boston Braves again, Atlanta Braves)
Buffalo Bisons (left for the International League in 1886)
Chicago White Stockings (later Chicago Colts, Chicago Orphans, Chicago Cubs)
Cleveland Blues (dissolved after 1884 season)
Detroit Wolverines (dissolved after 1888 season)
New York Gothams (later New York Giants, San Francisco Giants)
Providence Grays (dissolved after 1885 season)

Bob.

by The Dark on Jul 9, 2011 11:54 PM EDT up reply actions

Cool. Didn’t know that, thanks. (I was somehow aware of the “Beaneaters”)

by dajafi on Jul 10, 2011 10:57 AM EDT via mobile up reply actions

Why was it that the other team’s non-city names caught on, while the Phillies’ didn’t?

by taco pal on Jul 10, 2011 4:04 PM EDT up reply actions

Good question. I have a book about the Phillies by Donald Honig, a well-known baseball author, in which he says that when the franchise moved from Worcester for the 1883 season they were “by general agreement” to be known as the Phillies. The nickname thing with Quakers could have been popular then but only a study of newspapers of the time – or perhaps checking records in Cooperstown – would show if it was used that often. I also wonder if there was ever a time when the first initial nickname was tried for the Phillies. I assume that’s why the A’s are the A’s, and there are other teams that sometimes showed up in headlines as the O’s, the M’s, the G-Men, D’Backs, and the Bees. We could have had city with the A’s and the P’s. Kind of like the old grocery stores.

by phillyinportland on Jul 10, 2011 6:02 PM EDT up reply actions

Chooch with an assist

I watched the replay on MLB.com (h/t to Trev223). I was unaware during the live event what was happening, but, interestingly, on the replay, Tom and Wheels also seemed unaware, other than the fact that Perez struck out the side.

But on the replay what was fascinating was the pitch progression that Chooch prepared. The first two batters got breaking pitches that dropped into the zone for the first strike. Both of the first two got nasty Lidge-in-2008-style sliders that dropped off the table and almost were in the dirt for a swinging strike three. The third batter got a high-in-the-zone fast ball for a swinging strike three (perhaps expecting an out-of-the-zone slider).

Perez is a journeyman. But it’s also possible that Chooch will help him master the right pitch selection such that he will improve and be a useful piece for Cholly. Command of WHEN to throw the pitch out of the zone is something he may not have gotten before. (J.C. Romero seemed to never be able to throw it in the zone, at all, at times). Note that the Pirates and Dodgers organizations, and the Dodgers in particular, have not been known for grooming smart catchers.

In preparation for NHL free agency, thinking of changing my screen name to Bhudde in 10OC.

by Bud in TN on Jul 9, 2011 2:59 PM EDT reply actions