{"id":54947,"date":"2022-05-11T22:15:36","date_gmt":"2022-05-12T02:15:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=54947"},"modified":"2022-05-11T22:19:42","modified_gmt":"2022-05-12T02:19:42","slug":"michael-king-emerges-as-relief-ace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2022\/05\/11\/michael-king-emerges-as-relief-ace\/","title":{"rendered":"Yankees Michael King Emerges as Relief Ace"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was June in the Bronx and the New York Yankees<\/a> were playing the <\/span>Boston Red Sox. <\/span><\/a>The <\/span>New York Yankees<\/span> trailed their historic rival by three games in the standings and were about to start a three-game set. The Red Sox sent <\/span>Nathan Eovaldi<\/span> to the mound to face off against 26-year-old righty, <\/span>Michael King<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>The Sox jumped ahead out of the gate via <\/span>Rafael Devers’<\/span> three-run homer in the first inning. Eovaldi would shut down the Yankees lineup\u2014only allowing them to plate two runs in his six innings of work. <\/span>King bounced back from the first and kept the Yankees within striking distance for most of the game. One by one, the Red Sox hitters stepped to the plate, looking for a way to bounce King from the game and force the Yankees to dip into their pen.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then Came the Fourth Inning.\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Red Sox’s six, seven, and eight hitters were due to bat. <\/span>Hunter Renfroe<\/span>, <\/span>Marwin Gonzalez<\/span>, and <\/span>Christian Vazquez<\/span> each lugged their lumber to the plate and were made to look like fools.<\/span> Each one went up, and each one came down. King sliced through the three Red Sox hitters, striking them out swinging to retire the side on only nine pitches\u2014an Immaculate Inning. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Michael King had recorded the 94th immaculate inning in MLB history and became just the seventh Yankee ever to do so. <\/span>Dellin Betances<\/span> was the last Yankee pitcher to do it in 2017.\u00a0<\/span>Boston would score another run off of King and would win the game 5-2, en route to a Sox series sweep. To distract from the fact that they had just been swept by their hated rival, the Yankees could find solace in the thought that Michael King showed everyone what he was capable of. <\/span>He was far from perfect for the entirety of the game. In fact, he gave up four earned runs and was charged with the loss. But for a handful of minutes in the fourth inning, he was immaculate.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Michael King, Immaculate Inning. \ud83d\ude07 pic.twitter.com\/kx7DpVdv2t<\/a><\/p>\n

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) June 5, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n