Astros: Luis Garcia throws an immaculate inning

Houston Astros’ starter Luis Garcia throws the 107th immaculate inning in Major League Baseball history, as Phil Maton follows with his own in the seventh.

Sporting a new hair style, Houston Astros‘ starter Luis Garcia did something he had never done in his young career in a regular season contest. In his second major-league season, Garcia slung an immaculate inning Wednesday against the Texas Rangers, making it No. 107 in Major League Baseball history.

Garcia punched out Nathaniel Lowe, Ezequiel Duran and Brad Miller on nine pitches, throwing one four-seam fastball, four cutters, a changeup and a curveball. Garcia’s immaculate inning followed a one-run first on a hit and an error committed by Aledmys Diaz at shortstop.

And while coming into his start delayed due to a run fest from the Astros in the top of the first inning, Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle noted the drop in velocity of Garcia’s pitches. Rome also mentioned how Garcia’s velocity has fluctuated throughout the year.

Pitching coach Josh Miller made sure to get the final strike authenticated for Garcia.

Garcia fanned two batters after his immaculate inning, before surrendering a solo home run off the bat of Corey Seager. The right-hander collected six punch outs over the second and the third innings after not waving any batters in the first.

This also isn’t Garcia’s first immaculate inning. During spring training last year, the righty tossed an immaculate inning in relief against the Washington Nationals. In that same outing, Garcia faced infielder Luis Garcia — one of the two other Luis Garcias in Major League Baseball.

Once the seventh inning rolled around, Phil Maton was tasked to face the same three hitters Garcia did in the second. Maton punched out all three hitters on nine-straight fastballs, generating four whiffs, as the Astros became the first team to record more than one immaculate in a single game.

The Astros did all of this on Dusty Baker’s 73rd birthday.

The last immaculate inning thrown by an Astro in a regular season game came from Will Harris against the Los Angeles Angels on Sept. 27, 2019. The Astros won the contest 4-0 in Los Angeles with Ryan Pressly pitching the seventh inning, Harris having the eighth and Josh James taking the ninth.