ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Houston starter Luis Garcia and reliever Phil Maton each threw an immaculate inning — nine pitches, three strikeouts — after a big opening offensive outburst for the Astros.
Martín Maldonado, their 35-year-old veteran catcher, was in the middle of it all.
Maldonado had a two-run double in Houston’s six-run first on manager Dusty Baker’s 73rd birthday, later homered and was behind the plate for all the strikeouts — 14 in all — as the AL West leaders wrapped up their seventh consecutive series victory against the Texas Rangers with a 9-2 win Wednesday.
“To be part of that, anytime you make history … I’m glad I was catching in that situation,” Maldonado said, adding he didn’t remember ever being part of an immaculate inning, much less two of them.
“We hadn’t had a first inning inning like that in a long time,” Baker said. “A couple of records, the same guys we struck them out back-to-back-to-back with nine pitches. … So it was a good day for us.”
Garcia (4-5) fanned nine without a walk over six innings while limiting Texas to two runs and four hits. He had a span of five consecutive strikeouts that began with his immaculate second inning — only nine pitches to strike out Nathaniel Lowe, Ezequiel Duran and Brad Miller.
Those were the first three batters Maton faced after replacing Garcia to start the seventh. And Maton also recorded a nine-pitch, three-strikeout inning.
“We obviously knew they were cruising pretty good,” Miller said. “I wish I would have taken some better swings, and wish they didn’t get it.”
Astros and Rangers officials said it was the first time in MLB history to have two nine-pitch, three-strikeout innings in the same game — either both by one team, or each team recording one.
The only other immaculate inning in the majors this season was by New York Yankees starter Nestor Cortes on April 17 at Baltimore.
When Maton finished off his nine-strike inning throwing only fastballs, neither Garcia or Maldonado initially realized there had been another immaculate inning. The catcher had tossed the ball to third baseman Alex Bregman when he heard people yelling for the ball.
“I was talking to the guys (in the dugout) and then the guys erupted, and I said what happened,” Garcia said.
Both pitchers had baseballs from their immaculate innings, already with authentication stickers, in their lockers after the game.
The only AL West team with a winning record, Houston (39-24) had lost four of five after dropping the series opener. The Astros then won 4-3 on Tuesday night with a four-run rally in the eighth inning, and started the series finale with another big outburst.
The Astros sent 11 batters to the plate in the first inning. Fill-in starter Tyson Miller (0-1) was gone after No. 9 batter Maldonado’s double for a 6-0 lead, and the pitcher was sent back to Triple-A Round Rock after the game.
Miller was a replacement call-up from Round Rock when the Rangers put Glenn Otto on the COVID-19-related injured list hours before he was to start a series opener Friday night against the White Sox. Miller threw 2 1/3 innings in relief in Chicago, but got the start against the Astros when Otto’s spot in the rotation came up again.
Houston leadoff man Jose Altuve was hit by Miller’s third pitch of the game, before a single and walk loaded the bases. Yordan Álvarez then hit a two-run double to extend his on-base streak to 16 games and put the Astros ahead to stay.
“Tyson, you could tell was just a little off, wasn’t really commanding the baseball at all. Fell behind, really didn’t really get much swing and miss,” Texas manager Chris Woodard said. “You start down 6-0, it takes the wind out of your sails little bit.”
