Before we begin looking ahead to 2027, OTM is looking back at 2026, highlighting some of the biggest, strangest, and most memorable moments that defined a memorable season. Today, we look back at nine perfect pitches.
The baseball season is long. It’s long for the players, who spend March through September on planes, in hotels, and on treatment tables. It’s also long for the fans. You and I aren’t obligated to watch every game; we aren’t paid to do so, but we do anyways because it’s part of our routine.
If you’re going to track the baseball season all summer, you need to find reasons to watch. Expanded playoffs, despite the negatives they bring (i.e., a lower bar of success for owners), extend the competitive runway and keep playoff hopes alive for longer into the season. At the same time, only one team wins in the end, so if you can’t enjoy the small moments along the way, you’re going to end up disappointed more often than not.
That’s where Payton Tolle comes in. On any given night, he creates those moments. His dominance on the mound helps; he struck out 11 Yankees in his season debut after starting the season in Worcester, for example. While his athletic performance was memorable, his theatrical performance topped it. The liminal moments between pitches, batters, and innings are what stood out.
There are a handful of moments to choose from this season, but let’s jump to September 13th. It’s the top of the first inning, and Tolle has struck out the first two batters on six pitches. He throws strike one to the third hitter, and quickly follows it with strike two.
The crowd, forced to pay attention by the geometry of Fenway Park, is on its feet. Tolle gets his sign from the catcher, peers into the dugout, and giggles. Can you believe it? He giggles. He’s on the verge of doing something that’s only been done 124 times since 1889. There are over 40,000 half innings each season. There have been millions of opportunities to throw an immaculate inning, but only just over 100 have been completed. It’s one of baseball’s rarest accomplishments. How could Tolle be laughing ahead of this hugely important pitch?
Because what happens next is unimportant. The moment to remember is not the ninth and final pitch of the inning. It’s the few seconds before the pitch, with Tolle smiling at the thought of it.
To the players, baseball is their livelihood. They get paid for their performance, and if they don’t succeed, they lose their job. It makes sense that they treat their work like work. To you and me, however, baseball is an escape. It’s a distraction, something to do in our free time. I like to analyze the game and write about my findings. I watch the games with laptop tabs open and a notebook to write down interesting pitch sequences to write about later. I also like seeing people do cool shit.
Payton Tolle is yet to make huge money as a professional baseball player. He’s well paid by most standards, but he hasn’t even hit arbitration, let alone cash in on free agency. His performance matters, but he isn’t paid extra for throwing an immaculate inning. In that moment, before throwing his ninth pitch of the day, he looked as much like a little leaguer pitching for the first time as he did like a professional in the middle of a playoff hunt.
The coming offseason will bring another bitter war between players and owners. Each side will try to maximize their profits and will sling mud in the media in order to put pressure on the other. The days will get colder and shorter. The tensions and threat of losing games will rise. Ahead of this, we all could use a reminder that baseball is supposed to be fun. Let Payton Tolle be that reminder.
Throwing an immaculate inning is cool. Having fun while throwing an immaculate inning is cooler.
