ARLINGTON — Texas Rangers right-hander Phil Maton struck out the first three Arizona Diamondbacks batters he faced on nine combined pitches Wednesday afternoon.
It doesn’t register as an immaculate inning, though, because he faced the first batter to end the eighth inning and the last two to start the ninth.
The need to examine exact semantics were washed away almost immediately afterwards.
Maton allowed two home runs — including a go-ahead three run blast from second baseman Ketel Marte with two outs in the ninth — to blow a save and cost the Rangers a series win in Wednesday’s 6-4 loss vs. the Diamondbacks at Globe Life Field.
Rangers
Maton, who’d previously allowed just one home run this season and only a single run as a Ranger since he was acquired from the St. Louis Cardinals at July’s trade deadline, replaced left-hander Hoby Milner with two outs in the eighth and promptly struck out first baseman Tyler Locklear with two curveballs and a sinker.
He ran his cutter past left fielder Jake McCarthy for the first out in the ninth and got right fielder Alek Thomas to chase a curveball in the dirt for the second.
He threw two balls to catcher James McCann before he hung a sweeper that was hit 361 feet into left field to pull the Diamondbacks to within one run. He then hit third baseman Blaze Alexander with his curveball and walked shortstop Geraldo Perdomo on four pitches that weren’t close to the zone.
Marte — who hit a go-ahead home run off of left-hander Danny Coulombe in the ninth inning of Tuesday’s 3-2 loss — watched two Maton pitches before he crushed a curveball in the zone into right-center field to give the Diamondbacks a two-run lead. The Rangers went down in order in the bottom of the ninth.
“Just complete loss of feel for the curveball and the cutter in zone,” Maton said. “Losing my primary weapons, just obviously a spiral happened after that.”
Marte, a three-time All-Star, went 6 for 9 with two home runs in the last two games of the series. Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said that he did not consider an intentional walk with All-Star right fielder Corbin Carroll next to bat.
“It just got away from us here in the ninth,” Bochy said. “He just lost his feel there a little bit. That’s a tough one — two outs in the ninth, nobody on — yeah, those are always tough, they sting.”
Find more Rangers coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.
Click or tap here to sign up for our Rangers newsletter.