Nick Maton Pitches in Phillies Loss and Unthinkable Happens

Major League Baseball really went this far with Phillies ‘pitcher’ Nick Maton.

The Philadelphia Phillies had yet another disappointing loss on Monday in a makeup game opposite the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park.

Holding a two-run lead in the seventh, the bullpen went on to blow its seventh save out of the previous six games. And, with Enyel De Los Santos throwing 37 pitches in the eighth and the Reds scoring a half-dozen runs, manager Joe Girardi turned to infielder Nick Maton to get the final out — and the unthinkable happened.

Maton needed just four pitches to strike out Reds pinch-hitter (and pitcher) Tony Santillan swinging on an 83 miles per hour slider. Walking off the mound and toward the dugout, Maton was laughably hit with a foreign substance inspection.

Thankfully, the former seventh-round draft pick was not caught with anything, as MLB has already seen its first ejection over the weekend. Seattle Mariners left-hander Hector Santiago was ejected by home plate umpire Phil Cuzzi after a between-innings inspection that ended up in his glove being confiscated.

Santiago is now the first pitcher in the league facing a 10-day suspension, thanks to Major League Baseball’s increased enforcements to prohibit pitchers from doctoring balls. His glove was confiscated to be further examined, to determine if the substance the umpires found was anything other than rosin. If suspended, the Mariners will not be allowed to replace Santiago on either their active or 40-man rosters.

Maton is the brother of Phil Maton, a five-year veteran who has pitched parts of three seasons each with the San Diego Padres and Cleveland Indians. This season, Phil is 2-0 with a 5.83 ERA and 46-13 strikeouts-to-walks ratio across 26 appearances and 29 1/3 innings. Perhaps Phil passed on some pitching advice to Nick over the years, in case his brother would ever be called upon to pitch — as he did on Monday in the 12-4 Phillies blowout loss to the Reds.

At the plate this season, Nick is slashing .261/.320/.378 with seven doubles, two home runs, and 11 RBI spanning 43 games and 122 plate appearances. He has fielded 142 2/3 perfect innings at second base, while committing four errors at shortstop in 139 2/3 innings. Now, he can add one-third of an inning to his rookie resume.