Andrew Kittredge’s first two appearances with the Chicago Cubs were perfect. His third appearance was a disaster.
His fourth appearance? The sixth immaculate inning in franchise history.
The veteran reliever accomplished the feat of three strikeouts on nine pitches on Wednesday in the seventh inning of a game against the Cincinnati Reds. His victims: Austin Hays, Gavin Lux and Tyler Stephenson, all of whom went down swinging.
Immaculate innings are one of the lesser-known single-game accomplishments in baseball, but the fact that there have only been 120 in MLB history puts them closer to perfect games (24) than no-hitters (326) on the rarity scale. They are becoming more frequent, though, with 13 in the past four seasons.
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Cal Quantrill of the Miami Marlins and Brandon Young of the Baltimore Orioles are responsible for the other two immaculate innings this season.
Kittredge, whom the Cubs acquired at the trade deadline for infield prospect Wilfri De La Cruz, entered the history books just one day after getting booed off the field at Wrigley Field. He allowed four earned runs in an inning of work, taking the loss in a 5-1 Reds victory.
Immaculate innings have a tendency to sneak up on people who are watching the game, or even the ones playing in it. The Cubs booth praised Kittredge for bouncing back by striking out the side, until a graphic showed the words “immaculate inning” and Cubs catcher Carson Kelly admitted he didn’t realize what was happening until pitch No. 9:
“The last pitch [is when I realized]. I was like, ‘Wow. We went sinker, sinker, slider; sinker, sinker, slider; sinker, sinker… slider?’ It was pretty cool to be a part of that.”
Kittredge is a nine-year MLB veteran and was solid in his half-season with Orioles — solid enough in fact to get traded as the team decided to punt on a lost 2025 season. He was one of four players acquired by the Cubs at the deadline, alongside fellow reliever Taylor Rogers, utility man Willi Castro and starting pitcher Michael Soroka, whose status is very up in the air right now.
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