When I started digging, it initially didn't appear to be very rare at all. Indeed, only 24 games into our franchise's history, we saw Jeff Suppan become our first Diamondbacks pitcher to deliver a three-pitch inning, in the third against the Florida Marlins on April 25, retiring Edgar Renteria, future Diamondback legend Craig Counsell and Gary Sheffield with his first offering. indeed, he was one batter away from retiring six consecutive batters with his first pitch, since in the second inning, Dave Berg and (another future D-back) Livan Hernandez both went down on the first offering, before Cliff Floyd proved positively glacial, taking a whole four pitches to make his out.
The disappearance of the three-pitch inning
