Matt Garza, of the American League Tampa Bay Rays, faced the minimum of 27 batters on his way to a no-hitter against the Detroit Tigers last night.The Rays, who have themselves been no-hit twice this season, won the game 5-0.
Oddly enough, both pitchers took no-hitters into the sixth inning last night. Detroit pitcher Max Scherzer did not give up a hit until Rays centerfielder, Matt Joyce hit a grand slam home run.
Garza’s was the fifth no-hitter of the season (sixth if you count Andres Gallaraga’s no-hit gem that Umpire Jim Joyce blew on a play at first base with two outs in the ninth.
This is mighty good for baseball, methinks. Perhaps, as I noted after the All-Star game, the age of Steinbrenner really has passed. As pitching becomes more and more dominant against un-juiced lineups, it just seems as though the influence of money in the game is slightly less noticeable. For the most part, big payroll teams (Yanks, Red Sox, White Sox, Dodgers, etc.) have not really come up with the strongest pitching performances in the big leagues this year (the one exception being the Philadelphia Phillies, who have just this year raised their total player payroll by a cool $30 million.)
This is the third time this season that the Rays have been involved in a no hitter. Oakland's Dallas Braden tossed a perfect game against Tampa Bay on May 9, and Arizona right-hander Edwin Jackson threw 149 pitches for a no-hitter against the Rays, his former team, at Tropicana Field on June 26.
The other no-hitters this season were both perfect games (one by Philadelphia’s Roy Halladay and the other by Colorado’s Ubaldo Jimenez.)
This post washobbled together using reporting by the Associated Press.
