No. 2025.06.19 · Modern Era
Hudson and the Immaculate Inning
Yoshinobu Yamamoto was one called strike from an immaculate inning when Marvin Hudson ruled a 96-mph fastball a ball. Yamamoto struck out the side anyway. The inning was no longer immaculate.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto with the Dodgers at Nationals Park, April 2024. Portrait, not the June 19, 2025 inning.
All-Pro Reels from District of Columbia, USA / CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)
June 19, 2025, Dodger Stadium, the Padres in town. In the top of the third Yoshinobu Yamamoto struck out Bryce Johnson and Martín Maldonado on three pitches each. He got ahead of Fernando Tatis Jr., 0–2. The next pitch was a 96-mph fastball over the middle of the plate. Plate umpire Marvin Hudson called it a ball.
An immaculate inning is three strikeouts on nine pitches. There have been about 118 of them in major-league history. Hudson's call ended this one. Yamamoto struck Tatis out two pitches later, so the side was still retired on strikes, and the pitch count was no longer nine. San Diego won the game, 5–3. Accounts in the East often date the night June 20. In Los Angeles it was still the 19th.
Dodgers broadcaster Joe Davis asked on the air whether the league could borrow the automated ball-strike system from Triple-A for the night. The entry is the one pitch. The strikeout that followed does not put the call back.
Film
Yamamoto strikes out the side
Yoshinobu Yamamoto strikes out the side in the third and comes one called ball short of an immaculate inning.
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