Miami Marlins pitcher Cal Quantrill pitched the 116th immaculate inning in the history of Major League Baseball on Sunday against the Tampa Bay Rays.
For those unaware, an immaculate inning is, well, immaculate. A pitcher steps to the mound to start an inning, strikes out the first batter he faces on three pitches, then does it again and does it again.
One inning. Three batters. Three strikes each. Nine pitches total. Back to the bench to wait for the next inning.
All 9 pitches from Cal Quantrill's immaculate inning 😎 https://t.co/gI9r5k3JVY pic.twitter.com/8BRCa0Hcr4
— MLB (@MLB) May 18, 2025
While the feat might sound common, or at least not especially rare given that we’ve seen 116 of them in the history of baseball, mathematically, the immaculate inning is a feat more rare than a perfect game, even though there have been just 23 perfect games in the history of the sport.
MLB analyst Ryan Spaeder provided a good breakdown of the math. When accounting for the rarity of an immaculate inning, you need to divide by the total number of innings played in baseball history, rather than the number of games. A bigger denominator gives you a smaller fraction. See below.
#Marlins Cal Quantrill tosses the 116th Immaculate Inning in MLB History.
— Ryan M. Spaeder (@theaceofspaeder) May 18, 2025
About 460,000 pitched games in MLB history, and 23 perfect games:
≈0.00500% (1 in 20,000)
About 4,275,000 innings pitched in MLB history, and 116 immaculate innings:
≈0.002713% (1 in 36,853)
By the numbers, you could say that immaculate innings are nearly twice as rare as a perfect game. Put another way, while there are more games that feature an immaculate inning than games that feature perfect games, innings are far less likely to be immaculate than games are likely to be perfect.
That said, in the modern age of dynamic flamethrowers and three true outcomes, immaculate innings have gotten more common in recent years—we’ve seen at least one thrown every season since 2006, and 2022 featured an impressive seven immaculate innings.
Still, it’s a rare display of pitching dominance and should be celebrated as such. Also, it’s a fun excuse to blog about math.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Why Cal Quantrill’s Immaculate Inning Was More Rare Than a Perfect Game.
