It’s not as exciting as a perfect game -- it’s not even as exciting as a near-perfect game -- but I almost like quirky stuff like this better: Felix Hernandez struck out four guys in one inning last night. The wild pitch punchout went to Joe Mauer, but the King then bore down and got Justin Morneau looking. Here’s the video of all four strikeouts.
Thanks to MLB.com we now know that the 4K feat has happened forty-nine times. The first one I remember from that list was Mike Scott, who did it in 1986. Thanks to getting the USA Today and its then-astoundingly comprehensive weekly stats page at home that summer ’86 was the first season I really followed statistics closely. Because of it, I was totally fixated on Scott’s rising strikeout totals and I thought the 4K inning -- mentioned in a little blurb in the next morning’s recaps -- was the most awesome thing ever.
On some weird level it kind of is. At least for dorks like me.
