Two years ago, Blue Jays‘ rookie relief pitcher, Steve Delabar, was a substitute teacher in a small town in Kentucky.
Now the 29-year-old finds himself in the history books after an impressive outing on Monday night against the White Sox.
The game was tied at two a piece at the end of the ninth, and the Jays turned to Delabar to start the extra frames.
Leading off the inning for Chicago was left fielder Dayan Viciedo, who Delabar greeted with three pitches to send him back to the bench.
Tyler Flowers came up next and went down swinging to make it two consecutive punch outs for the Jays relief man. The ball scooted away from catcher Jeff Mathis which resulted in Flowers finding himself safe at first on the play.
No harm, no foul, however, as Delabar proceeded to strike out the next batter Gordon Beckham and then got leadoff man Alejandro De Aza as well to get out of the inning unscathed.
He officially faced four batters in the top of the tenth and sat them all down swinging. When a pitcher gets four K’s in one inning, it’s obviously something special and unique.
This instance was even more rare than any other though, seeing that this was the first time in MLB history a pitcher has accomplished this feat in extra innings.
Delabar came out again for the top of the 11th where he continued his dominance by striking out two of the three batters he faced. The Jays rallied in the bottom half of the frame, earning the rookie his third win on the season.
Picking up a win, fanning six and becoming the first player in the history of your sport to do something—not too bad for a day’s work.
*Stats are from ESPN.com.
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