 What is the record for most strikeouts in one inning? At first, this might seem like a silly question. Most people's initial reaction would probably be that well, there are only three outs in any given inning, so obviously a pitcher can only strike out three hitters. It's tough to fault your logic there, but unfortunately you would be wrong, because ninety-one times in the history of Major League Baseball, a pitcher has actually struck out four batters in one inning. You may recall the rule that a catcher must legally catch a third strike to a hitter in order to complete that strikeout. If he drops the third strike and first base is open or there's two outs, then the batter can make a run for it and try to reach first base. If the batter is successful in his sprint up the baseline, then he is now a base runner, even though his at bat is still recorded as a strikeout. Back on a Wednesday afternoon in 1885, a pitcher from Philadelphia named Robert Matthews not only struck out four hitters on Pittsburgh in one inning, but two of those four hitters reached base. Having two strikeout victims reach base in the same inning is something that has never happened since, although perhaps it's an offensive strategy that Pittsburgh hitters should look into because they've been struggling to generate offense these last few decades. This situation would have given Matthews the opportunity for five Ks in one inning, which he seems to have blown, and it has never happened. Unfortunately for Matthews, that game was in the American Association and therefore does not count as a Major League game. The first official MLB occurrence was a few years later when Ed Crane, no relation to the long-legged bird, struck out four Chicago White Stockings players in the fifth inning of a game in October of 1888. Nicknamed the cannonball for his size and strength, Crane was known for his enjoyment of eating, quote, an order of a dozen soft-boiled eggs served in a soup bowl, which he liked to top off with an order of two dozen clams, end quote. Sadly, the cannonball acquired a taste for alcohol on a trip to Paris, and he went on to drink himself to death, although others speculate that he actually died of suicide from drinking acid. He was 34. Anyway, what were we talking about again? Oh yeah, so for a while after that, teams limited their strikeouts in an inning to three, although a few guys like Walter Johnson did come along and manage four. Orville overall, who sounds like a character from a tongue twister come to life, became the first pitcher to do it in the World Series for the Cubs in 1908. But then from 1916 to 1956, it never happened, not once, until a Sunday afternoon in the first game of a doubleheader when Jim Davis struck out four Cardinals in the sixth inning. It happened occasionally after that, with Hall of Famers like Don Drysdale, Phil Necro, and Bob Gibson, no relation to the guitar, adding their names to the list too. Pete Richard became the only pitcher to do so in his first game, and then we made it to the 90s. The 90s were a crazy time, when you had to read a magazine to see what was on television, your pet was probably a tomagotchi, and you had to rewind your movies before taking them back to blockbuster video. The 1990 season was also a crazy time, because it was the first season in which four batters struck out in one inning twice, then in 1996 it happened thrice. In 1999, things went haywire and it happened six times, including twice by Chuck Finley, who became the first pitcher to strike out four guys in an inning twice. People thought that was cool, until at least the following season, when he did it a third time. Since then, AJ Burnett, Zach Grenke, and Craig Kimbrel have all pulled it off twice. All of these guys being recent pitchers, their feats have contributed to the huge increase of occurrences over the last two decades. It happened eight times in 2012, which if I'm remembering correctly, that was one of two predictions that the Mayans made regarding 2012, although they did get the other one wrong. Pitchers nowadays throw harder, they throw more breaking balls, and batters strike out a lot more than they used to. Because of all that, I imagine we'll continue to see more than three hitters striking out in an inning for years to come, at least on occasion. Maybe someday we'll get to five.