Baseball No Hitters

[Ricardus]

The Mets threw a no-hitter by-committee last night. It's a legit no hitter, but instead of 1 pitcher getting all 27 outs, in this case, it took 5 pitchers.

Some say it's less meaningful that way. I call BS. You still gotta get 27 major league hitters out without ONE of them getting a hit. No easy task.

There have been 315 no-hitters in recorded MLB history, and only 18 have been by-committee. That's about 6%. So off the bat (see what I did there???!) that implies they're much harder to get. But we'd need to look at all of the data more deeply to really know why that is.

Either way it was fun to watch.

 

[hodad]

Part of it may be that pitchers are not typically pulled in a no-hitter situation until they give up a hit. Kershaw(?) got pulled from a potential perfect game earlier this year, but that's the exception rather than the rule. The Braves had one way back in 1991 (the first year of their run of division championships)--I can't remember why Mercker, the starter, got pulled. I tend to agree, though--it's still impressive, no matter how many pitchers are involved.

 

[Ricardus]

Part of it may be that pitchers are not typically pulled in a no-hitter situation until they give up a hit. Kershaw(?) got pulled from a potential perfect game earlier this year, but that's the exception rather than the rule. The Braves had one way back in 1991 (the first year of their run of division championships)--I can't remember why Mercker, the starter, got pulled. I tend to agree, though--it's still impressive, no matter how many pitchers are involved.

Yeah. That's a consideration, definitely. But there are also examples of pitchers getting pulled when they has nonos going, and then the reliever gave it up. So we can only work with the data we have, and no speculate on what we don't know which might have happened.

 

[Ricardus]

Any way you look at it, the Mets have exactly TWO no hitters, and I watched both of them on TV.

 

[hodad]

The closest I've come to seeing a no-hitter in person was one Greg Maddux game. An hour or so after we took our seats I look up at the scoreboard--it's the 5th & Maddux has a no-hitter. He hung onto it until the 7th--Maddux never cared about no-hitters anyway. Still stands as probably the most efficiently pitched game I've ever seen in person.

 

[groselicain]

If you're interested in no-hitters, do yourself a favor and check out this four part series. Jon Bois is an incredible writer.

 

[Ricardus]

We used to have a Single A minor league team in my town, and I seem to recall in the late 70s or early 80s seeing a no hitter by committee. I'd have to do some research to see my memory is correct.

 

[JW]

You could literally be throwing the ball 110mph in the 8th inning, no one able to touch the ball,l you're so bad ass, but Dave Roberts will still pull you before you can finish the game.