http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/20...ter-focus_x.htm
The no-hitter, baseball's most unpredictable fluke, is nowhere to be found.
Today is the two-year anniversary of the last major league no-hitter, a perfect game by then-Arizona Diamondback Randy Johnson against the Atlanta Braves.
On nine occasions since, pitchers have carried no-hitters into the eighth inning. Only the Philadelphia Phillies' Eric Milton took one into the ninth, on July 25, 2004, losing it with no outs on a double by the Chicago Cubs' Michael Barrett.
Last season was the second in two decades without a no-hitter.
If a no-hitter is not thrown in any of Thursday's 11 scheduled games, pitchers will run the streak to 4,862. That's baseball's longest such streak, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, topping the 4,002-game stretch that ended Sept. 19, 1986 — when the Chicago White Sox's Joe Cowley pitched a 7-1 no-hit win against the California Angels.
"It seems like ages ago," Johnson says of his 2-0, no-hit win.
To complete a no-hitter, conventional wisdom says the lineup has to be a little off, the pitcher must have his best stuff and great control, and luck must be on his side. Power pitchers generally are thought to have the best chance because their high strikeout totals mean fewer balls are in play.
"More than anything, it's probably just coincidence," says the New York Mets' Tom Glavine, who came within a bloop single of combining for a no-hitter vs. the Cleveland Indians for Atlanta in the 1995 World Series.
"You either have to be one of those guys that just has electric stuff or one of those guys that gets lucky, or a combination of both."
Johnson can't explain the lack of no-hitters but says the game is "geared toward offense. Nobody wants to come and watch a lot of strikeouts. They want to see home runs. That's more exciting."
Bulging offensive numbers are good for business. Cozy ballparks favor the hitters. There are bigger and stronger players with more speed and fewer power pitchers.
"When I was pitching, there were some good hitting teams, but then there were teams that weren't as strong, with four or five good hitters," says New York Yankees pitching coach Ron Guidry, who won 170 games for the Yankees (1975-1988). "Now every club has a strong lineup all the way through. The pitchers aren't as dominant and the players today are faster."
Yankees pitcher Mike Mussina, who has lost two perfect games in the ninth inning (to Cleveland's Sandy Alomar in 1997 and the Boston Red Sox's Carl Everett in 2001), says the feat might be getting more difficult because of batters' improved patience and discipline.
"Instead of going up to the plate looking to hit, they are going up to hit their pitch," he says. "In general, they fight off more pitches. And the game situation has to be ideal. You have to have a low pitch count. Nobody's going to let you throw 150 pitches trying to get a no-hitter."
Johnson's perfect game needed 117 pitches and included a wicked combination of sliders and fastballs, the last going 98 mph to strike out the Braves' Eddie Perez to end the game. His 13 strikeouts were the second-highest total for a perfect game behind Sandy Koufax's 14 in a 1-0 win for the Los Angeles Dodgers vs. the Cubs on Sept. 9, 1965.
Johnson says "there are always one or two good defensive plays that help you out ... and then the pitcher has to do his part."
Watching the (pitch) count
Detroit manager Jim Leyland says the idea of a complete game pitched is no longer a conscientious goal. Leo Mazzone, the Baltimore Orioles pitching coach, says there's too much emphasis on pitch counts because of the multimillion-dollar investments in the staffs.
"It's very rare just to have a complete game nowadays," Leyland says. "I don't think anybody cares. It's not an issue."
Mazzone, a former Braves pitching coach, remembers when Kent Mercker pitched a no-hit, 6-0 win for the Braves vs. the Dodgers on April 8, 1994, in Los Angeles. Mercker, who had 10 strikeouts and four walks, came to the dugout after the seventh with no idea he was throwing a no-hitter.
"He ... said he was tired," Mazzone said. "I said, 'Are you out of your mind? Look up at the scoreboard? Do you see what's going on?' And he said, 'I guess I'm not tired anymore.' I said, 'Oh really?' "
Warming up in the bullpen before a game, pitchers often cannot predict they're headed for a good, or great, outing. Yankees reliever Scott Erickson, while with the Minnesota Twins in 1994, threw a 6-0 no-hitter against the Milwaukee Brewers at the Metrodome, not a pitchers venue. "After I warmed up in the bullpen, I sat in the dugout and told (pitcher) Kevin Tapani that it would be a miracle if I got through the third inning," Erickson says. "Then in the fifth inning, I got loose and locked in and everything started to pop."
Teammates recognize what's going on.
"The first four innings of a no-hitter are no big deal," the Orioles' Kevin Millar says. "Then, the sixth comes, and you realize it's pretty sacred and players are starting to talk about the possibility under their breath. And then the last six outs are pretty amazing."
Starters Rich Harden and Barry Zito of the Oakland Athletics lost no-hit bids last July 14 and July 15, with Harden getting to within five outs of a perfect game.
"That's probably the most fun I've ever had out there, being able to control every at-bat," Harden says. "Every pitch you know what you want to do."
Zito says completing a no-hit game "is so much up to chance." His bid went into the eighth inning.
"It was broken up on a good pitch. That illustrates the fact it's so hard to do," he says. "I threw Kevin Mench a first-pitch fastball, up and in, and he turned on it and hit a homer. I made my pitch. ...
"It shows you can't pitch to throw a no-hitter. You've just got to hit your spots and hopefully miss the solid part of the bat."
No reason behind it
The record books debunk many of the theories about who could and probably couldn't throw no-hitters. How else to explain how Cowley, who won 33 games in his career, or Bud Smith of the St. Louis Cardinals, with a 7-8 career record, each have a no-hitter, but not Glavine, Curt Schilling or Greg Maddux, who have won a combined 802 games.
"Sometimes, pitchers throw better games when they don't get no-hitters," Mazzone says. "Maddux once had an 89-pitch, no-walk, (eight-strikeout) game against the Yankees. That might be better than a no-hitter." Maddux gave up three hits.
Or how can it be that the Mets, an expansion team in 1962, have never had a pitcher throw a no-hitter, but the Florida Marlins, who came into existence in 1993, have three, from A.J. Burnett, Al Leiter and Kevin Brown?
Brown dominated in a 1997 game against the San Francisco Giants, coming within a walk of a perfect game in a 9-0 win. But Burnett, in 2001, walked nine in a 3-0 win against the San Diego Padres.
"Any guy (on) his best day, with the right luck, can do it," Zito says. "It's not even about being a great pitcher with longevity or a dominating guy. It's just about having your luck go your way."
Detroit pitcher Kenny Rogers, who threw a 4-0 perfect game in 1994 for the Texas Rangers against the Angels, says luck plays a role but that his focus was never sharper than that one game.
A "million things" can distract a pitcher, he says. "But I didn't have a distraction or one negative thought, not for a second, not for a split-second. There was no thinking, 'What do I do if I give up a hit to this guy?' I didn't hear anything. I was in my own little world."
From the fifth inning on, Rogers knew he had a no-hitter but had no idea he was pitching a perfect game. He found out when the club's public relations man, John Blake, congratulated him about it.
"Many people don't believe me, but I swear to this day I didn't know," Rogers said. "My ignorance helped. I was throwing pitches to get players and not to avoid anything. After the game, I felt as fresh as I did before the first inning. I wasn't tired. That's because I wasn't thinking. My brain didn't let me down."
The zone Rogers describes evades him. "A pitcher goes out there thousands of times, and there will always be a distraction, sometimes insignificant. Why? How do I go back to where I was that night?"
Rogers isn't alone in that quest. Every night, pitchers in baseball ask the same question.
The no-hitter, baseball's most unpredictable fluke, is nowhere to be found.
Today is the two-year anniversary of the last major league no-hitter, a perfect game by then-Arizona Diamondback Randy Johnson against the Atlanta Braves.
On nine occasions since, pitchers have carried no-hitters into the eighth inning. Only the Philadelphia Phillies' Eric Milton took one into the ninth, on July 25, 2004, losing it with no outs on a double by the Chicago Cubs' Michael Barrett.
Last season was the second in two decades without a no-hitter.
If a no-hitter is not thrown in any of Thursday's 11 scheduled games, pitchers will run the streak to 4,862. That's baseball's longest such streak, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, topping the 4,002-game stretch that ended Sept. 19, 1986 — when the Chicago White Sox's Joe Cowley pitched a 7-1 no-hit win against the California Angels.
"It seems like ages ago," Johnson says of his 2-0, no-hit win.
To complete a no-hitter, conventional wisdom says the lineup has to be a little off, the pitcher must have his best stuff and great control, and luck must be on his side. Power pitchers generally are thought to have the best chance because their high strikeout totals mean fewer balls are in play.
"More than anything, it's probably just coincidence," says the New York Mets' Tom Glavine, who came within a bloop single of combining for a no-hitter vs. the Cleveland Indians for Atlanta in the 1995 World Series.
"You either have to be one of those guys that just has electric stuff or one of those guys that gets lucky, or a combination of both."
Johnson can't explain the lack of no-hitters but says the game is "geared toward offense. Nobody wants to come and watch a lot of strikeouts. They want to see home runs. That's more exciting."
Bulging offensive numbers are good for business. Cozy ballparks favor the hitters. There are bigger and stronger players with more speed and fewer power pitchers.
"When I was pitching, there were some good hitting teams, but then there were teams that weren't as strong, with four or five good hitters," says New York Yankees pitching coach Ron Guidry, who won 170 games for the Yankees (1975-1988). "Now every club has a strong lineup all the way through. The pitchers aren't as dominant and the players today are faster."
Yankees pitcher Mike Mussina, who has lost two perfect games in the ninth inning (to Cleveland's Sandy Alomar in 1997 and the Boston Red Sox's Carl Everett in 2001), says the feat might be getting more difficult because of batters' improved patience and discipline.
"Instead of going up to the plate looking to hit, they are going up to hit their pitch," he says. "In general, they fight off more pitches. And the game situation has to be ideal. You have to have a low pitch count. Nobody's going to let you throw 150 pitches trying to get a no-hitter."
Johnson's perfect game needed 117 pitches and included a wicked combination of sliders and fastballs, the last going 98 mph to strike out the Braves' Eddie Perez to end the game. His 13 strikeouts were the second-highest total for a perfect game behind Sandy Koufax's 14 in a 1-0 win for the Los Angeles Dodgers vs. the Cubs on Sept. 9, 1965.
Johnson says "there are always one or two good defensive plays that help you out ... and then the pitcher has to do his part."
Watching the (pitch) count
Detroit manager Jim Leyland says the idea of a complete game pitched is no longer a conscientious goal. Leo Mazzone, the Baltimore Orioles pitching coach, says there's too much emphasis on pitch counts because of the multimillion-dollar investments in the staffs.
"It's very rare just to have a complete game nowadays," Leyland says. "I don't think anybody cares. It's not an issue."
Mazzone, a former Braves pitching coach, remembers when Kent Mercker pitched a no-hit, 6-0 win for the Braves vs. the Dodgers on April 8, 1994, in Los Angeles. Mercker, who had 10 strikeouts and four walks, came to the dugout after the seventh with no idea he was throwing a no-hitter.
"He ... said he was tired," Mazzone said. "I said, 'Are you out of your mind? Look up at the scoreboard? Do you see what's going on?' And he said, 'I guess I'm not tired anymore.' I said, 'Oh really?' "
Warming up in the bullpen before a game, pitchers often cannot predict they're headed for a good, or great, outing. Yankees reliever Scott Erickson, while with the Minnesota Twins in 1994, threw a 6-0 no-hitter against the Milwaukee Brewers at the Metrodome, not a pitchers venue. "After I warmed up in the bullpen, I sat in the dugout and told (pitcher) Kevin Tapani that it would be a miracle if I got through the third inning," Erickson says. "Then in the fifth inning, I got loose and locked in and everything started to pop."
Teammates recognize what's going on.
"The first four innings of a no-hitter are no big deal," the Orioles' Kevin Millar says. "Then, the sixth comes, and you realize it's pretty sacred and players are starting to talk about the possibility under their breath. And then the last six outs are pretty amazing."
Starters Rich Harden and Barry Zito of the Oakland Athletics lost no-hit bids last July 14 and July 15, with Harden getting to within five outs of a perfect game.
"That's probably the most fun I've ever had out there, being able to control every at-bat," Harden says. "Every pitch you know what you want to do."
Zito says completing a no-hit game "is so much up to chance." His bid went into the eighth inning.
"It was broken up on a good pitch. That illustrates the fact it's so hard to do," he says. "I threw Kevin Mench a first-pitch fastball, up and in, and he turned on it and hit a homer. I made my pitch. ...
"It shows you can't pitch to throw a no-hitter. You've just got to hit your spots and hopefully miss the solid part of the bat."
No reason behind it
The record books debunk many of the theories about who could and probably couldn't throw no-hitters. How else to explain how Cowley, who won 33 games in his career, or Bud Smith of the St. Louis Cardinals, with a 7-8 career record, each have a no-hitter, but not Glavine, Curt Schilling or Greg Maddux, who have won a combined 802 games.
"Sometimes, pitchers throw better games when they don't get no-hitters," Mazzone says. "Maddux once had an 89-pitch, no-walk, (eight-strikeout) game against the Yankees. That might be better than a no-hitter." Maddux gave up three hits.
Or how can it be that the Mets, an expansion team in 1962, have never had a pitcher throw a no-hitter, but the Florida Marlins, who came into existence in 1993, have three, from A.J. Burnett, Al Leiter and Kevin Brown?
Brown dominated in a 1997 game against the San Francisco Giants, coming within a walk of a perfect game in a 9-0 win. But Burnett, in 2001, walked nine in a 3-0 win against the San Diego Padres.
"Any guy (on) his best day, with the right luck, can do it," Zito says. "It's not even about being a great pitcher with longevity or a dominating guy. It's just about having your luck go your way."
Detroit pitcher Kenny Rogers, who threw a 4-0 perfect game in 1994 for the Texas Rangers against the Angels, says luck plays a role but that his focus was never sharper than that one game.
A "million things" can distract a pitcher, he says. "But I didn't have a distraction or one negative thought, not for a second, not for a split-second. There was no thinking, 'What do I do if I give up a hit to this guy?' I didn't hear anything. I was in my own little world."
From the fifth inning on, Rogers knew he had a no-hitter but had no idea he was pitching a perfect game. He found out when the club's public relations man, John Blake, congratulated him about it.
"Many people don't believe me, but I swear to this day I didn't know," Rogers said. "My ignorance helped. I was throwing pitches to get players and not to avoid anything. After the game, I felt as fresh as I did before the first inning. I wasn't tired. That's because I wasn't thinking. My brain didn't let me down."
The zone Rogers describes evades him. "A pitcher goes out there thousands of times, and there will always be a distraction, sometimes insignificant. Why? How do I go back to where I was that night?"
Rogers isn't alone in that quest. Every night, pitchers in baseball ask the same question.
