June 25, 2010

The Season's 4th no-hitter belongs to Edwin Jackson: Jackson walked 8 Rays, and threw 149 pitches in his first career no-no.

posted by MeatSaber to baseball at 10:50 PM - 11 comments

The Rays are really setting records here.

posted by bperk at 11:07 PM on June 25, 2010

Eight walks? Not too special. The Rays probably should have just gone up there and stood without thinking about swinging the bat and would have scored enough to win this one. That would have been great, Jackson throws a no-hitter and loses.

posted by dyams at 11:23 PM on June 25, 2010

That would have been great, Jackson throws a no-hitter and loses.

It's happened at least once before, that I am aware of: Ken Johnson of the 1964 Houston Colt 45s.

There have also been about four "shortened" no-hitters; that is, pitchers who pitched and lost no-hitters as members of the visiting team (and therefore did not have to face the batters in the ninth, since the home team had already won. The most recent gave like that was Matt Young of the 1992 Red Soxs, who lost to the ChiSox 2-0 as the visiting pitcher, having given up two runs on 8 walks and an error.

posted by billinnagoya at 12:38 AM on June 26, 2010

From nonohitters.com:

"The powers that be recognize 267 sanctioned no-hitters in major professional baseball history (244 in the N.L. and A.L., the rest in the American Association), although there used to be some 50 more of the accomplishments in the record books. (Click here for the list of the games once considered no-hitters but now unrecognized.)

In September 1991, baseball's Committee on Statistical Accuracy, chaired by then MLB Commissioner Fay Vincent, changed the official definition of the feat, saying, 'A no hitter is a game in which a pitcher or pitchers complete a game of nine innings or more without allowing a hit.'"

posted by jjzucal at 08:21 AM on June 26, 2010

The Rays are really setting records here.

The double no-no club.

Matt Young of the 1992 Red Soxs, who lost to the ChiSox 2-0 as the visiting pitcher

It was 2-1 at Cleveland. I suffered through the whole thing. The '92 season, I mean.

posted by yerfatma at 09:29 AM on June 26, 2010

Man, I loved that '92 season. I pine for those days. Oh, how I pine.

8 walks isn't as bad as Burnett's no hitter with 9. Too bad for Jackson - we've been desensitized this year. "What, JUST a no-hitter?!? You woke me up for that?!?"

posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 12:16 PM on June 26, 2010

I think it's still impressive regardless of the walks. It doesn't say much about the Rays hitting at the moment to put so many on base and come up with bupkiss.

posted by rcade at 12:24 PM on June 26, 2010

Yeah it is impressive, no doubt. It's a baseball feat. What's interesting to me is that allowing 8 baserunners in a game over 9 innings is a great outing. But is it greater than say, Ricky Romero's game in May against the Rangers when he also went 9 allowed no runs, but only 6 baserunners while striking out 12? Five of those baserunners were on with singles, sure and one was walked - but isn't that really less important than the overall? He had two less runners on, and was much more efficient with 118 pitches. Just saying. Maybe no-hitters are a bit of an overrated phenomenon.

posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 06:32 PM on June 26, 2010

Allowing your pitcher to throw 149 pitches (just a shade over 50% of which were strikes) is lunacy, regardless of what he has going. Unless his name is Livan Hernandez.

posted by holden at 10:07 PM on June 26, 2010

But is it greater than say, Ricky Romero's game in May against the Rangers when he also went 9 allowed no runs, but only 6 baserunners while striking out 12?

My fantasy team remembers that day fondly.

posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 10:36 PM on June 27, 2010

Maybe no-hitters are a bit of an overrated phenomenon.

Lee Sinins created a very good baseball database, and sends out daily updates about the MLB (game results, interesting stats, injuries, etc.).

When a player pitches a perfect game, he takes note of it.
When a player pitches a no-hitter, it just gets mentioned as a shutout.

His belief is the same as Weedy's: a no-hitter with 3 walks is statistically the same as a 3-hitter with no walks. And given the nature of a hit (hitter vs [pitcher + defense]) compared to the nature of a walk (hitter vs pitcher), he puts more stock in a 3-hit/0-walk performance than a 0-hit/3-walk performance.

posted by grum@work at 12:09 AM on June 28, 2010

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