Verlander No-No's Blue Jays Again; It's His Third Overall
Baseball as it's played today makes a complete-game no-hitter even more of an accomplishment.
First of all, most trainers and other biomechanical staff continue to believe that 120 pitches an outing is the red line, healthwise. After that, a full recovery between regular starts can become an issue.
Teams currently average around 149 pitches per game.
This explains why, this season, two of the three no-no's thrown until now this season were combined efforts:
- Seattle was zipped by the Los Angeles Angels and Houston Astros' tag teams, and
- The Oakland Athletics' Mike Fiers went the distance against Cincinnati in 131 pitches.
Secondly, MLB now dictates that to be credited with a no-hitter, a chucker or committee thereof has to do it in a complete game. Thus, if it goes into extras and a hit is allowed, it's still not a nine-inning no-hitter.
Justin Verlander hit that red line on the nose and needed a two-out, ninth-inning home run by rookie Abraham Toro -- a Canadian, incidentally -- to avoid extra innings and, obviously, pitches to record his third career no-hit game.
As usual for him, this blanking of the Toronto Blue Jays was a picture of efficiency, which happens when 14 punchies are registered:
Dude thus joins this list of luminaries with three or more no-no's in their careers:
- Nolan Ryan - 7
- Sandy Koufax - 4
- Bob Feller - 3
- Cy Young - 3
- Larry Corcoran - 3
And what would a feat like Verlander's be in these sabermetric times without a red-headed stepchild stat tossed in?
.@JustinVerlander is the first pitcher ever to throw TWO no-hitters in the same road stadium (Rogers Centre). pic.twitter.com/9Iqw2hSOzx
— MLB Stats (@MLBStats) September 1, 2019
Dude first zipped the Blue Jays on 7 May 2011. His first was against the Brewers on 12 Jun 2007, the only one he threw in his home park.
If anyone appreciates Ryan's ringing up seven no-hitters, it's Verlander. Dude's lost four others in the late stages:
- Against eighth inning late in 2011,
- In the ninth in 2012 and 2015, and
- In the seventh this past May by Jose Abréu of the White Sox.
Speaking of the 120 pitches, it may have been a good thing Verlander had a bitta extra rest. Dude was ejected in his previous start against Tampa Bay.
To notch a complete-game no-no anymore, seems like every little thing helps.