Have there been a lot of near no-nos? Corbin, others going further sooner
Apr 22, 2018, 11:37 AM | Updated: 3:56 pm
(AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)
On Sunday, Diamondbacks pitcher Patrick Corbin followed up his near no-hitter by allowing just two hits and striking out 11 over six innings in a 4-2 win over the San Diego Padres.
It’s been less than a week since he threw 7 2/3 innings of hitless ball against the Giants, but pitching performances over the last week has made it feel longer.
A week ago, Bartolo Colon of the Rangers took a no-hitter into the eighth inning.
Two days later, Corbin only gave up an infield hit off a check-swing in the bottom of the eighth before finishing a complete-game, one hit shutout.
The D-backs got a taste of their own medicine four days later, when Tyson Ross of the Padres took Arizona into the eighth without giving up a hit before allowing Christian Walker to get on base with two outs.
The league took notice – for a day.
On Saturday, Sean Manaea of the Athletics threw a no-hitter against the Red Sox, a team that had scored at least six runs in 12 of their last 13 games.
His no-hitter was tied for the earliest in a season since 2010.
There have already been 12 pitchers to throw a no-hitter into the seventh inning or later this season, according to NoNoHitters.com.
The site lists all occurrences since 2015.
The 12 no-nos lost in the seventh inning or later this season is as many as the previous three seasons combined.
2015: Only two games were hitless going into the seventh inning in April. On Opening Day, April 6, Sonny Gray went seven innings of hitless ball. On April 9, four Indians pitchers combined to throw 8 1/3 inning before allowing a home run with one out in the ninth.
2016: Jake Arietta threw a no-hitter on April 21.
Only four other games featured a team hitless in the seventh inning or later in April, and two of them were later in the month than Madaea’s: One was April 25 and the other April 29.
2017: By this point of the 2017 season, five no-hitters had gone into the seventh inning. One of them featured Manaea, who went five innings before being pulled in the sixth despite not allowing a hit.
2018: This is the first year the site has tracked a near no-hitter in March, and it happened twice. There have been 12 no-hitters lost in the seventh inning or later.