Among the rarer individual feats in baseball is throwing an immaculate inning — where a pitcher strikes out all three batters they face on the minimum of nine pitches.
On Wednesday against the Rangers (+1.5), two Astros pitchers, Luis Garcia and Phil Maton, managed to do it in the same game against the same exact batters.
Let’s take it to the top of the second inning, with Houston leading 6-1 and the starter, Garcia, slated to face the Rangers’ Nathaniel Lowe, Ezequiel Duran, and Brad Miller.
Precisely nine pitches later, all three batters were out, and Garcia had the 106th immaculate inning in MLB history:
LUIS GARCIA IS IMMACULATE. pic.twitter.com/9YwSW06uIp
— Houston Astros (@astros) June 15, 2022
Fast forward to the top of the seventh. Relief pitcher Phil Maton is now on the mound with Houston protecting a 7-2 lead, while Lowe, Duran, and Miller were all up to bat again.
Nine pitches later, Maton had the 107th immaculate inning in MLB history, again, off the same batters. (Houston would go on to win, 9-2.)
Frankly, that is absolutely wild:
SAME GAME. SAME BATTERS.
PHIL MATON IS IMMACULATE. pic.twitter.com/xg53FGAJ02
— Houston Astros (@astros) June 15, 2022
Here’s a ridiculously cool side-by-side of both perfect innings:
Phil Maton just tossed the second immaculate inning of the game, to the SAME THREE BATTERS as the first one … pic.twitter.com/9HUBNWshU5
— MLB (@MLB) June 15, 2022
For context, Garcia and Maton’s two separate immaculate innings in the same game is the first time in MLB history that that has happened on the same calendar date, let alone the same game:
This is the first time on record there have been two immaculate innings on a single calendar date, let alone in the same game OR by the same team
— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) June 15, 2022
In 2022, Maton and Garcia threw just the second and third immaculate innings of the season, following the Yankees’ Nestor Cortes, who did it against the Orioles in April:
Per the MLB record books, some of the bigger names to ever throw an immaculate inning include Hall of Famers Nolan Ryan, Sandy Koufax, Randy Johnson, and Pedro Martínez.
Quite obviously, Houston’s Garcia and Maton have joined some illustrious company. But in the near-140-plus years that baseball has kept records, they still stand alone as the only two teammates to ever do it in one game on the same day.
Have yourself a mutual day of pitching excellence, fellas.
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