Randall Delgado of the Braves had a no hitter through six innings last night. He had faced the minimum of 18 batters, walking one and having him erased on a double play. That all went to hell when Cody Ross led off the seventh inning with a game-tying solo home run. Delgado was immediately pulled afterwards, and it was the right call. That got me to thinking. How many rookies have thrown no hitters?
There have been a few. The last one was by Clay Buchholz of the Red Sox, who no hit the Orioles in his second career start. Anibal Sanchez of the Marlins no hit the Diamondbacks in his 14th career start, and the mercurial former star-to-be, Bud Smith of the Cardinals, no hit the Padres in his 13th career start.
This is odd though….it’s happened three times this decade, twice in the 90’s (Jose Jimenez and Wilson Alvarez), but just once in the 80’s (Mike Warren). That doesn’t really surprise me, given how frequently no hitters seem to be happening nowadays. But I thought it was an interesting little quirk that it’s happening more often now than it was 20 years ago.
Around the League…Arizona stunned Roy Halladay…Justin Verlander did his Justin Verlander thing…Chicago beat Cleveland and is only a game behind the Tribe for second place
Today’s Matchups…Matt Cain vs Jair Jurrjens in Atlanta….Joe Saunders vs Cliff Lee in Philly…Johnny Cueto vs Ross Detweiler in DC…and finally, CJ Wilson vs Ervin Santana in LA
Enjoy today’s games everyone…I’m heading to see some minor league action tonight. Hooray!
