Riddle me this: Two pitchers from the same team combined for four strikeouts in one inning.
How did that happen?
Right-hander Jake Irvin and southpaw Mitchell Parker tallied the rare pitching line in the Nationals’ 10-inning 6-3 win over the White Sox on Saturday at Rate Field.
Per Elias Sports Bureau, the only other pitcher in Nationals team history (2005-present) to throw a four-strikeout inning was Jon Rauch on April 26, 2006, in the eighth against the Reds.
Irvin and Parker became the first pair of pitchers to combine for four strikeouts in a single inning since Luis Frías (3) and Erik Swanson (1) of the Blue Jays on Sept. 17, 2024, versus the Rangers.
En route to a season-high nine-strikeout performance, starting pitcher Irvin began the sixth inning by fanning Miguel Vargas. But the 92.3 mph four-seamer was a passed ball by catcher Keibert Ruiz, who then committed a throwing error. Vargas reached second base, erasing Irvin’s first out.
Irvin locked in to strike out Colson Montgomery and Everson Pereira in back-to-back at-bats on six straight curveballs.
"That's a shoutout to the guys that are coming in from their at-bats and saying you couldn't see anything because of the shadows,” Irvin told reporters postgame. “So you play the conditions. Obviously, it was really difficult to see spin today. So when something like that happens, you’ve just got to take advantage of it.”
With two outs, manager Blake Butera made the call to the bullpen for the lefty Parker.
Parker hurled five consecutive sliders at right-handed hitter Tanner Murray, resulting in the fourth strikeout of the frame. Parker, who started 59 games for the Nats the last two years, has 10 strikeouts in nine innings out of the bullpen this season.
“Throwing strikes, that's the name of the game,” Butera said to reporters of Parker’s success. “Especially today when shadows were kind of tough, when we were in the zone, we were really good. … When he's ahead in the count and attacking hitters, the stuff's so good.”
When Rauch fanned four in one frame, he struck out David Ross swinging and caught Bronson Arroyo looking. After walking Ryan Freel, he struck out Felipe López, but López reached first on a wild pitch. Rauch got out of the inning and stranded runners by striking out Adam Dunn.
Since that game and Saturday, there have been 67 four-strikeout innings in all of baseball thrown during the regular season. Toronto reliever Jeff Hoffman was the most recent pitcher to strike out four in a frame, on March 27 of this season in the ninth inning against the Athletics.