Detroit Tigers' Nick Maton Trolls Phillies, Fans After Hitting Home Run
Nick Maton of the Detroit Tigers hit a three-run home run on Monday night to break up a no-hitter attempt from Aaron Nola of the Philadelphia Phillies.
The blast came on an 0-2 curveball in the top of the seventh inning. It was pummeled out to right field.
After connecting on the blast, Maton made sure to flip his bat and then appeared to wave at the crowd as he rounded third base.
From this writer's perspective, it seems a little unnecessary to troll the crowd in a game that you're still losing, 5-3, at the time. Perhaps there's some bad blood there though, as Maton played for the Phillies in 2021 and 2022.
For the season, Maton is hitting just .167 with six homers and 20 RBI. For his career, in 339 at-bats, he's a .215 hitter with 13 homers, 51 RBI and two stolen bases.
Perhaps Maton's antics angered the Phillies, who responded with three more runs immediately after. At the time of this posting, it's 8-3 Phillies in the bottom of the seventh.
Assuming Philadelphia holds on, they'd move to 28-32 on the season while Detroit would fall to 26-32.
Nola has gone all seven innings thus far, allowing just the one hit and three runs (none earned). He's walked three and struck out 12. If he gets the win, he'll move to 5-4 on the year.
The two teams will play again on Tuesday at 6:40 p.m. ET. Taijuan Walker will pitch for the Phillies while Detroit has not named a starter yet.
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