The Brooklyn Dodgers hold the NL record: 21, in the first inning (ouch!) against the Reds on May 21, 1952. Stephens is the only one with three hits in one inning. From 1900-1995, no major league player ever made all three outs in a single inning.
The "Olympic Rings" or platinum sombrero applies to a player striking out five times in a game. A horn refers to a player striking out six times in a game; the term was coined by pitcher Mike Flanagan after teammate Sam Horn of the Baltimore Orioles accomplished the feat in an extra-inning game in 1991.
The Boston Red Sox defeated the Philadelphia Athletics 22-14 on June 29, 1950 in a game which was played in Shibe Park, not the more comfortable Fenway Park in Boston.
The term derives from hat trick, and since four is bigger than three, the rationale was that a four-strikeout performance should be referred to by a bigger hat, such as a sombrero.
The Mendoza Line was a term coined by a teammate of Mario Mendoza on the 1979 Mariners -- usually credited to Tom Paciorek or Bruce Bochte -- as a joke on the light-hitting shortstop, who typically carried an average around . 200 (though he actually finished with a career mark of . 215).
He had already chosen S to stand for sacrifice in a box score, so he used K for a strikeout, since that is the last letter in “struck,” which was at the time the most popular way to refer to a batter's being out after three strikes.
At the time, only every third “unfair pitch” was called a ball, meaning that a batter could only walk after nine pitches out of the strike zone. As time went on, the rule was dropped to eight balls, then seven, and so-on until four balls were settled on by the league in 1889.
: an out in baseball resulting from a batter's being charged with three strikes. strike out. verb. struck out; struck out also stricken out; striking out; strikes out.
No-hitters by team
| Team | Number of no-hitters |
|---|
| Los Angeles Dodgers | 26 |
| Chicago White Sox | 20 |
| Boston Red Sox | 18 |
| San Francisco Giants | 17 |
The backwards “K” in baseball can be seen in major league ballparks all across the country. The backward K in baseball means that the batter struck out without swinging at the third strike. The backward K is used in the scorebook to keep track of players striking out without swinging.
The term comes from hockey's hat trick, the feat when a player scores three goals in a single game. A batter that strikes out three times is given just a sombrero, but when they do it four times, it becomes a golden sombrero.
A base on balls (BB), also known as a walk, occurs in baseball when a batter receives four pitches that the umpire calls balls, and is in turn awarded first base without the possibility of being called out.
Definition. A walk (or base on balls) occurs when a pitcher throws four pitches out of the strike zone, none of which are swung at by the hitter. After refraining from swinging at four pitches out of the zone, the batter is awarded first base.
Over nearly 145 years of professional baseball, no player was tougher to strike out than Hall of Fame shortstop Joe Sewell. In 7,132 career at-bats, Sewell heard the umpire say “Strike three” just 114 times.
The Tampa Bay Rays have the most strikeouts per game by a team this season, with 10.
| TEAM | SEASON | TB |
|---|
| Tampa Bay Rays | 2021 | 1,483 |
| Miami Marlins | 2021 | 1,331 |
| Milwaukee Brewers | 2021 | 1,384 |
| Chicago Cubs | 2021 | 1,393 |
The pitcher who holds the record for the most no-hitters is Nolan Ryan, who threw seven in his 27-year career. His first two came exactly two months apart with the California Angels: the first on May 15, 1973, and the second on July 15.
Five of them won it all.
- 1906 Chicago Cubs: 116-36 (.763), lost World Series.
- 2001 Seattle Mariners: 116-46 (.716), lost in ALCS.
- 1998 New York Yankees: 114-48 (.704), won World Series.
- 1954 Cleveland Indians: 111-43 (.721), lost World Series.
- 1927 New York Yankees: 110-44 (.714), won World Series.
Reggie Jackson holds the record for the most career strikeouts by a batter with 2,597. Jim Thome (2,548), Adam Dunn (2,379), Sammy Sosa (2,306), Alex Rodriguez (2,287) and Andrés Galarraga (2,003) are the only other hitters to strikeout over 2,000 times.
That pitch was measured when the ball was 10 feet in front of home plate, according to Rivard and Sports Illustrated, which means after a small calculations adjustment that Ryan's fastball was closer to a 108 MPH pitch. And that may not even be his fastest fastball ever.
