Against Garcia, the Rangers hitters managed to foul on five of his nine pitches. Two of the batters swung and missed hit three while another fell on a bad pass caught by Maldonado. Maton was slightly more dominant, with the batters faulting just one on three pitches, with outs recorded on a foul, a called strike and a swing strike.
In a fun twist, Garcia briefly kept things going in the third inning by knocking out Leody Taveras on three pitches. It gave him a remarkable four strikeouts on 12 pitches.
Although still rare, the clean inning, like no-hitters and strikeouts in general, has become much more common due to the all-or-nothing approach of modern hitters and pitchers.
Between 1876 and 1921, there were only three recorded instances of a flawless inning. By the 1920s there were five, Grove being the last. There were none in the 1930s or 1940s and while the following decades saw a handful each, things took a noticeable turn with 17 in the 1990s and 14 in the 2000s.
The pitchers, it seems, were just getting started. There have been 37 immaculate innings in the 2010s and the 2020s have already had nine despite the pandemic reducing the 2020 regular season to 60 games from 162, and 2022 being only in its third month.
