Ryan Pepiot was immaculate for the Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday.
The right-hander pitched the fourth-best inning in Rays history against the Boston Red Sox, striking out Connor Wong, Wilyer Abreu and Triston Casas in the fifth inning. An “best inning” is when a pitcher strikes out all three batters on a total of nine pitches.
With just 117 spotless innings in MLB history, an spotless inning is rarer than a no-hitter or a cycle, though it happens so quickly that fans might not realize it happened. Michael Kopech pitched the only other spotless inning in MLB this season for the Chicago White Sox in July.
MLB has had multiple immaculate innings in every full season since 2016. The last season without one was 2005, a sign of the growing emphasis on strikeouts in today's game.
In Pepiot's case, he threw three straight four-seam fastballs against Wong and Abreu before throwing a pair of changeups to Casas. Five of his nine pitches were strikes, two were called strikes and two were fouls.
However, he was not so lucky in his next inning, as Trevor Story hit the first pitch of the sixth into the left field seats to tie the game 1-1.
Despite the homer, the start ended up being one of the best of Pepiot's young career. He pitched six innings, struck out 12 and allowed two hits, one of them Story's homer. The Red Sox won 2-1.
Pepiot is finishing up his first season with the Rays after arriving in the offseason via the Tyler Glasnow trade. Even without the immaculate inning, 2024 was shaping up to be a solid campaign for the 27-year-old and a continuation of the Rays' tradition of getting solid returns in exchange for more expensive stars.
