A 3 pitch inning

[Joseph New]

Have you ever seen a 3 pitch inning? I don't recall ever seeing one myself. They are very rare. They did a study in 2007 and determined that in all the innings played in major league baseball from 1957 to 2007 there were a total of 14 "3 pitch innings". Normally if the first 2 batters in an inning go out on the first pitch the third batter will take at least one pitch just to avoid the 3 pitch inning. But it happened tonight in Texas. In the top of the 6th inning with Chicago batting against the Rangers Tommy Hunter. And the odd thing was that the inning began with a base hit. Paul Konerko jumped on a first pitch fastball and lined a single to center. Then Andruw Jones jumped on a first pitch fastball and grounded into a 5-4-3 double play. That brought up Mark Kotsay. I guess he must be a first ball, fastball hitter because he too jumped on that first pitch and grounded out to the first baseman. 3 pitches, 1 hit, no runs, no one left on base. Now that is the way to keep your pitch count down.