With nine wins and just five loses, the Cincinnati Reds are MLB’s big, 2017 early-season surprise (well, them and the Brewers’ Eric Thames – hello, NL Central). 

Indeed, they’re currently in first place of the NL Central, a full 2.0 games ahead of the World Series Champion Chicago Cubs and four games ahead of the last-place St. Louis Cardinals (that was maybe the weirdest sentence I’ve ever written). 

And last night, Reds’ reliever Drew Storen solidified their latest win with an immaculate inning – that would be nine pitches, ALL STRIKES, for three straight strikeouts:

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How awesome is that to watch? 

By my count, that was 1) looking strike, 2) swinging strike, 3) swinging strike for the first out; then 4) looking strike, 5) swinging strike, 6) looking strike for the second out; and finally, 7) looking strike, 8) looking strike, 9) swinging strike for the final out. 

And according to the Reds’ Twitter account, this is not something that’s happened all too often:

https://twitter.com/Reds/status/854688817185304576

Through his first 7.1 IP of the season, Storen now has 1.23 ERA and a 27.3% strikeout rate. 

Alright Reds.  How long can you keep it up?