So, there’s this thing called an immaculate inning. It’s when a pitcher throws nine pitches in an inning and records three strikeouts.

It’s strike one, strike two, strike three. Strike one, strike two, strike three. Strike one, strike two, strike three.

It’s rare.

You’d think it would happen often. Especially with the frequency today’s hitters strike out. Like, an immaculate inning was possible any inning Joey Gallo stepped up to bat.

Never in baseball history had two immaculate innings been thrown in the same day.

Even more never in baseball history had two immaculate innings been thrown in the same game.

And vastly more never in baseball history had two immaculate innings been thrown in the same game by the same team.

And, to further add to the weirdness, it was against the same three Rangers batters both innings. In the second inning, Astros starter Luis Garcia struck out Nathanial Lowe on thre pitches, followed that up by striking out Ezequiel Duran on three pitches, then struck out Brad Miller on three pitches.

The exact same thing happened in the seventh, with Phil Maton pitching for Houston.

In the end, really all that matters was that the Rangers lost the game 9-2, lost the series two games to one, and lost one more game in their quest to catch Houston, who are now 9.5 games ahead of Texas.

A loss is a loss. All this one ended up being was a loss with an embarrassing side effect.

*****