TODAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY

June 30, 1962 At Dodger Stadium, With the aid of 13 strikeouts and a Frank Howard home run, 26 year old Sandy Koufax no-hits Bob Miller and the Mets, 5 - 0 in Los Angeles. Sandy starts off the game by fanning the side on nine pitches in the 1st inning, Richie Ashburn, Rod Kanehl, and Felix Mantilla, to complete an immaculate inning. He is the first National League pitcher to strike out the side on nine pitches since Brooklyn's Dazzy Vance, in 1924 and the first Dodger southpaw to throw a no-hitter since Nap Rucker accomplished the feat in 1908.

The Rarest Nine Pitches in Baseball

An immaculate inning is about as clean as pitching gets: three strikeouts, three batters, nine pitches, no wasted motion. It's only happened 121 times in MLB history, performed by 113 different pitchers.

John Clarkson of the Boston Beaneaters got there first, doing it against the Philadelphia Quakers back on June 4, 1889. The most recent man to join the club is Michael Soroka of the Arizona Diamondbacks, who pulled it off on March 30, 2026. Interestingly, the term "immaculate inning" itself didn't show up in newspapers until after 2000 — the feat existed long before the name did.

Only five pitchers have done it more than once: Hall of Famers Sandy Koufax and Nolan Ryan, plus active arms Chris Sale, Max Scherzer, and Kevin Gausman. Koufax, Sale, and Scherzer are the only ones to have done it three times each. Sale even managed two in the same season — May 8 and June 5 of 2019, just 28 days apart. But Koufax's case stands alone: on June 30, 1962, he threw an immaculate inning during the same game he threw his first no-hitter. No one else has paired those two feats together.

A handful of rookies have managed it too — Sloppy Thurston, Nolan Ryan, Wade Miley, Thomas Pannone, Reid Detmers, Hayden Wesneski, and Brandon Young. And there's exactly one postseason immaculate inning on record: Danny Jackson did it in Game 5 of the 1985 World Series, in the seventh inning, on his way to a complete-game 6–1 win that kept the Royals alive. They'd go on to win it in seven.
Usually this happens with the bases empty, but not always. Brad Boxberger of the Tampa Bay Rays came into a game on May 8, 2014 with the bases loaded and still struck out the side on nine pitches — same feat, much higher stakes.

No pitcher has ever thrown two immaculate innings in the same game, though Jesús Sánchez came close in 1998 — he struck out the side on 10 pitches in the second inning, then threw a true immaculate inning the very next inning, six straight strikeouts on 19 pitches across the two frames.

A few oddities worth knowing: on June 15, 2022, the Astros' Phil Maton and Luis Garcia each threw immaculate innings in the same game, striking out the exact same three Rangers hitters. Six weeks later, one of those Rangers — Ezequiel Durán — became the answer to a strange trivia question: he was the first strikeout victim in three consecutive immaculate innings thrown across the league.

And there are only four times a team has thrown an immaculate inning and then been on the receiving end of the very next one. The most recent: Tampa Bay's Jose Alvarado threw one against Milwaukee on August 4, 2017, and five days later Boston's Rick Porcello threw one right back at Tampa Bay. The Astros are the only franchise this has happened to twice — in 1991 and in 2004, when Houston's Brandon Backe and Milwaukee's Ben Sheets traded immaculate innings against each other within two months.

As of the 2026 season, the Rangers are still the only team to have never thrown an immaculate inning. The Diamondbacks and Blue Jays remain the only teams never to have surrendered one.

June 30, 1908, At New York’s Hilltop Park, Boston Red Sox ace Cy Young pitches the third no-hitter of his career when he shuts down the New York Highlanders, 8-0. Young almost duplicates his perfect game of 1904, walking just one batter – leadoff hitter Harry Niles. Niles is then caught stealing and the next 26 batters make out. Young also tallies three hits and drives in half the Pilgrims’ runs off Rube Manning. At 41 years and 3 months, he is the oldest pitcher to turn the no-hit trick. Nolan Ryan will beat him in 1990 at the age of 43.

June 30, 1934 On the 25th anniversary of Forbes Field, a granite monument to Barney Dreyfuss to the left of the exit gate is unveiled before the start of the Cubs-Pirates match. The Windy City squad wins, 4 – 2, behind Bill Lee, the 8th straight win for the Cubs.

June 30, 1938 – The Phillies play their final game in the Baker Bowl, losing 14 – 1 to the Giants. They will play future games in A’s-owned Shibe Park. Hank Leiber hits the last homer in the history of the 51 year-old ballpark, while Slick Castleman is the last winning pitcher.The Baker Bowl also served as the home of the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles for three seasons (1933-1935).

June 30, 1950 –– Joe and Dom DiMaggio both homer in the same game for the only time in their careers when each goes deep in Red Sox’s 10-2 rout of the Yankees. Dom’s sixth-inning solo shot off Joe Ostrowski pads Boston’s large lead, and Joe’s round-tripper to left field in the top of the eighth frame is much too little too late in the Fenway contest. It has been 15 years since two brothers homered in the same game.

June 30, 1959 The Giants’ Sam Jones throws a 2 – 0 one-hitter against the Dodgers, allowing only Jim Gilliam’s controversial single in the 8th, a grounder that SS Andre Rodgers has difficulty picking up. Willie Mays’s 2-run home run against Don Drysdale accounts for all the scoring.

June 30, 1961 Whitey Ford (14-2) tops the Senators, 5 – 1, to give the 2nd place Yankees their 22nd win of the month. Roger Maris drives in three runs and Mickey Mantle lines a shot over CF Willie Tasby that rebounds for an inside-the-park home run. Ford becomes the first pitcher in American League history to win eight games in one month.

June 30 , 1962 –The Houston Colt .45s walk off with a 7-3 victory over Cincinnati, cut short due to fog. The Reds must have thought they’d entered some Biblical plague what with the heat, humidity, a blinding fog and those Texas-sized mosquitoes. It is so thick that the outfielders can’t see home plate. A six-run rally puts Houston on top early. The shortened contest allows Houston’s skipper Harry Craft to get to the hospital in time for the birth of his first daughter.

June 30, 1970 A sellout crowd of 51,050 is on hand for the dedication of Cincinnati’s Riverfront Stadium, rushed to completion so the Reds can host the All-Star game. There is no electricity in the refreshments areas, and the scoreboard occasionally misfires, but Hank Aaron doesn’t misfire as he hits the park’s first home run off Cincinnati starter Jim McGlothlin in the 1st inning. The Braves win, 8 – 2.

June 30, 1978 Larry Doby becomes the second African-American manager in major league history when the Chicago White Sox name him as replacement for the fired Bob Lemon. Under Doby’s guidance, the White Sox will struggle to a record of 37-50 for the duration of the season.

June 30, 1995, Cleveland’s Eddie Murray singles in the 6th inning against Minnesota’s Mike Trombley for his 3,000th career hit, making him just the 20th player to reach the mark. The visiting Indians beat the Twins, 4 – 1. Murray becomes only the second switch-hitter-after all-time leader Pete Rose-to reach the milestone.

June 30, 1993 70-year-old Minnie Minoso appears as a DH for the St. Paul Saints in a game against Thunder Bay in the independent Northern League. Minoso grounds back to pitcher Yoshi Seo in his only at bat.

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