cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/15569225

Cubs lefty Shota Imanaga stood on the mound and yelled, soaking in the noise at Wrigley Field after striking out Michael A. Taylor to end the seventh inning on Saturday afternoon. He then slowly walked off the field with some more history in his back pocket.

With another seven scoreless frames for the North Siders in a 1-0 walk-off win over the Pirates, Imanaga lowered his ERA to 0.84 on the season. No pitcher in baseball history has posted a lower mark through their first nine career starts since ERA became an official statistic in 1913.

“When you start getting in this territory,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said, “you have to be a little surprised, for sure. We're fortunate to watch it.”

Prior to Imanaga’s run out of the gates this season, the lowest ERA through nine career starts (excluding openers) was the 0.91 mark spun by Fernando Valenzuela in his sensational rookie showing for the Dodgers in 1981.

It wasn't just any ol' lucky fan who caught left fielder Spencer Steer's foul ball in the fourth inning of the Reds' 7-3 loss to the Dodgers on Friday night at Dodger Stadium.

The catch was made by Steer's fraternal twin brother, Trevor, who was seated in the loge section behind home plate with several members of their family.

On a 93 mph first pitch from James Paxton, Steer fouled it back, and the ball zoomed right to his brother.

“It was coming right back at me," Trevor Steer said. "I was like, ‘I’ve got to do something.’ It was pretty wild.”

Wearing a Reds cap backward and his brother's former No. 12 jersey that he wore in 2022, Trevor Steer stood up and pointed to the last name on the back to the crowd seated around him.

The Dodger Stadium faithful responded with a round of boos.

“It’s pretty cool," Spencer Steer said. "It’s hard for him to get to games. I think it was the first game he’s seen all year and I hit a foul ball to him. Pretty crazy odds but a really cool story.”

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/15458657

This veteran infielder [David Fletcher] struck out the side at Triple-A with ... knuckleballs?!

The late innings of lopsided contests are often times for things to get weird. But David Fletcher slinging unhittable knuckleballs? You can add that to the completed part of your baseball-watching bucket list.

With Triple-A Gwinnett having played a doubleheader Tuesday and falling behind 10-2 through seven-and-a-half frames just hours later Wednesday afternoon at AutoZone Park, the bullpen was understandably tapped out. So for the second time in a week – and just the second time in his pro career, which began in 2015 – Fletcher jogged over to the mound from his starting spot on the infield.

Was the 29-year-old slinging sliders? Changeups? Curveballs? Not even Statcast could entirely pinpoint it. (Which is largely due to the fact that not much data exists on a player who before May 8 had never as so much toed the rubber in a professional setting.) But the nine times that Memphis batters swung at something that looked an awful lot like a knuckleball, they missed six of them.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/15372115

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