Nick Maton Explodes for Two Double, Five Hit Cycle

The Toledo Mud Hens defeated the Indianapolis Indians 7-2 on Wednesday night.

The star of tonight’s contest was Toledo’s Nick Maton, who recorded the Mud Hens first cycle since Ronny Rodriguez on May 30th, 2018 at Syracuse. Maton also recorded the second five-hit game of the year for the Hens, and the first since Riley Greene did it on July 5th vs Louisville.

Maton played third base and batted leadoff. The very first pitch of the game he hit deep to center field for a leadoff double, and later scored on Eddys Leonard’s two-run homer. Maton led off the third inning as well and reached base with a single to right field. He wouldn’t bat again until late in the fifth inning, when he almost left the yard with an RBI triple. With one on and two outs in the seventh inning, just a home run shy of the cycle, he launched his third homer of the year deep to right field just inside the foul pole.

Maton only needed four at bats to reach the cycle, but that didn’t mean his night was over. With two outs in the ninth, J.D. McLaughlin extended the inning with a single up the middle (his first AAA hit), which gave Maton one more at bat. He smacked his second double and fourth extra base hit of the night to deep right center field, which scored McLaughlin and gave Maton his fourth RBI of the game.

Nick Maton might have stolen the show tonight, but another Mud Hen had a great performance of his own. Starting pitcher Zach Logue recorded 10 strikeouts this evening, breaking his previous season high of seven. Logue left after just 4.2 innings and was unable to earn the win. His only mistakes came late in the third inning when he allowed back-to-back solo home runs to Chris Owings and Nick Gonzales.

The Mud Hens pitching staff struck out 17 batters, tying a season high. This was the fifth time they’ve struck out exactly 17 batters this season, and the first since August 18th against Omaha.

Colt Keith batted second in the order behind Nick Maton and went 0-5, snapping a 15-game hitting streak. That streak had tied the longest by a Mud Hen this year and was the third hitting streak of exactly 15 games to be broken. Justyn-Henry Malloy and Parker Meadows were the other two batters who produced such a streak. During Keith’s streak, he was 25-62 (.403) with five home runs, six doubles, 14 RBI, 14 runs scored, and nine walks compared to just eight strikeouts.

Toledo and Indy will face off again tomorrow night in Indianapolis. The first pitch is scheduled for 6:35 P.M.

Notables:

Nick Maton: 5-5, HR, 3B, 2 2B, 4 RBI, 2 R

Zach Logue: 4.2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 10 K

Eddys Leonard: 2-4, HR, 2 RBI, R

J.D. McLaughlin: 1-3, 2 R, BB

Ryan Kreidler: 1-3, 2B, R, SB