ANAHEIM, Calif. — Los Angeles Angels starter Reid Detmers became the first pitcher in seven years with a no-hitter and an immaculate inning in the same season, achieving the latter against the Texas Rangers on Sunday.
The Rangers matched the 1979 San Francisco Giants as the only lineups to have three immaculate innings thrown against them in a season. Houston posted two immaculate innings in the same game June 15 vs. Texas.
Detmers, who pitched a no-hitter against Tampa Bay on May 10, struck out three Texas hitters on nine pitches in the second inning for the 109th immaculate inning in baseball history.
“That’s pretty cool, I really don’t know what to say,” Detmers said. “My stuff was working and I got a ton of swings and misses.”
The Angels couldn’t build on his momentum, however. Ezequiel Duran hit a three-run double in the ninth inning as the Rangers won, 5-2. Texas took three of four from the Angels and went 5-6 on its season-high, 11-game road trip.
Detmers finished his day after seven innings, in which he struck out a career-high 12 while allowing two runs, one earned, on three hits. In the fourth, the left-hander struck out Duran, Kole Calhoun and Charlie Culberson in the fourth immaculate inning in the majors this year.
“I was focused on throwing more strikes,” Detmers said. “I was a little wild in the first. I wanted to throw strikes and pound the zone. I got some swings and misses.”
The Rangers became the first team to have it happen twice in the same game when Astros starter Luis Garcia retired the side in the second inning and reliever Phil Maton did it in the seventh June 15. Duran has been one of the batters in all three against the Rangers, a first according to MLB.com.
“It is something you think about a little bit,” Rangers manager Chris Woodward said. “After the first guy, second guy, you’re like, ‘Oh boy, can we just take one here?’ It’s something that doesn’t happen very often. It’s happened to us so many times, but it’s more luck than anything I think.”
Detmers had been struggling since his no-hitter. He was sent down to Triple-A Salt Lake for a couple of weeks before being recalled, and has impressed the club ever since.
“His presence, everything about him has been pretty good,” Angels interim manager Phil Nevin said. “Quite frankly, he shouldn’t have given up any runs today.”
Before Detmers, Houston’s Mike Fiers in 2015 was the latest to do the immaculate/no-hitter double in the same year.
It is only the third immaculate inning in Angels history, with all three occurring in the second inning. Nolan Ryan was the first on July 9, 1972, against Boston, and Garrett Richards accomplished it on June 4, 2014, at Houston.
Immaculate innings remain special but aren’t as rare as they once were. This is the 10th since 2020 and 61st since 2000. There were none recorded from 1929 to 1952.