(Updated July 12, 2020)
On the night he pitched an immaculate inning, Bob Gibson also was perfect at the plate.
An immaculate inning is defined as using the minimum number of pitches, nine, to strike out the minimum number of batters, three.
On May 12, 1969, Gibson faced three Dodgers batters in the seventh inning and struck out each on three pitches. He also produced three singles and a walk in four plate appearances, scored a run and stole a base in the Cardinals’ 6-2 victory at St. Louis.
“Gibson did everything but put in AstroTurf,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch marveled.
Gibson is one of two Cardinals to pitch an immaculate inning. The other is Jason Isringhausen, who struck out Daryle Ward, Jose Vizcaino and Julio Lugo in order on nine pitches in the ninth inning of a 2-1 Cardinals triumph over the Astros on April 13, 2002, at St. Louis. Boxscore and Video
9 perfect pitches
Gibson, 33, achieved his feat versus the trio of Len Gabrielson, Paul Popovich and John Miller. Gabrielson, a left-handed batter, and Popovich, a switch-hitter batting left, both struck out swinging. Miller, a right-handed batter substituting for starting pitcher Claude Osteen, struck out looking.
“I was throwing hard. All of them were good pitches,” Gibson said to the Post-Dispatch. “Good and low, most of them. Right on the corners. I don’t do that. Not nine straight pitches.”
Cardinals catcher Joe Torre said, “I’d just like to know what that Miller kid was thinking when Gibson shook me off twice on an 0-and-2 pitch. He shook me off a slider and then he shook off a curve. Then I called for a fastball and that’s what Gibson wanted. The kid took it.”
Gibson pitched a seven-hitter, struck out six and “proved he is just as good as ever _ and that’s almost as good as a pitcher can be,” the Los Angeles Times declared.
He told the Post-Dispatch he ached after throwing 123 pitches and the pain “starts here _ at the tip of my fingers _ and works up the arm and then into the shoulder and around down my side and all the way down to here _ my toes.”
Hit and run
Gibson made the Dodgers hurt for intentionally walking Steve Huntz, batting .083, to load the bases with two outs in the fourth. Gibson followed by drilling a two-run single, extending the Cardinals’ lead to 3-0.
“You have to drive in the runs yourself sometimes,” Gibson said.
In the seventh, Gibson scored on Julian Javier’s two-run single against Alan Foster.
With the Cardinals ahead, 6-2, in the eighth, Gibson worked a one-out walk from former teammate Pete Mikkelsen and swiped second. It was his second stolen base of the season and one of five steals for Gibson in 1969. He had 13 stolen bases in his Cardinals career. Boxscore
To see how much the game of baseball has changed, all you have to do is take a glance at the numbers Mr. Bob Gibson put up during his peak years. There will never be another like him.
Well said, thanks.
[…] Bob Gibson: First Cardinals pitcher with immaculate inning […]
Popovich, Miller and Gabrielson went a combined 16 for 88 against Gibson. As a Cardinal, Julio Lugo would be involved in another immaculate inning. In a game against Pittsburgh on Sept. 5, 2009. Lugo would be the second batter to strikeout against Pirates starter Ross Ohlendorf in his immaculate 7th inning.
Thanks. Len Gabrielson also had a key role in bringing an end to Bob Gibson’s scoreless streak at 47.2 consecutive innings in 1968: https://retrosimba.com/2018/07/01/bob-gibson-had-anticlimactic-end-to-shutout-streak/