29 OF 30 CLUBS HAVE HAD AT LEAST ONE NO-HITTER IN FRANCHISE HISTORY
The no-hitter remains one of the rarest and most notable
feats in baseball. Even if it seems like no-hitters are on the rise, there
is an argument that
isn't the case, and no matter how you slice it, it is one of the game's
greatest achievements to get 27 or more outs without surrendering a single hit.
To wit: Five current MLB teams have had only one no-hitter
in their entire existence, and one team has never had one at all.
Thus, we look at the last no-hitter for every team; save for
the one that still doesn't have one. If you weren't around for the last one,
odds are you've got quite a wait for the next one.
NATIONAL LEAGUE
CENTRAL
BREWERS: JUAN NIEVES
April 15, 1987
Still the only no-hitter in
Brewers history, the highlight of the final out doubles as part of Robin
Yount's career highlight reel.
CARDINALS: BUD SMITH
September 3, 2001
Smith's random no-hitter,
at the age of 21, came in only his 11th big league start. He parlayed it into a
postseason start that year, winning Game 4 of the NL Division Series over
eventual World Series-champion Arizona. He never got it back together after
that and was traded to the Phillies after the 2002 season, a year in which he
had a 6.94 ERA, along with Placido Polanco for Scott Rolen. Smith never
appeared in the Majors again.
CUBS: JAKE ARRIETA
April 21, 2016
This was when Arrieta was on his crazy heater, in which he threw two no-hitters
in 11 regular-season starts.
PIRATES: FRANCISCO CORDOVA AND RICARDO RINCON
July 12, 1997
This is technically a split
no-hitter, but Cordova actually threw a nine-inning no-no.
Unfortunately for him, the Pirates didn't score in his nine innings, so after
Mark Smith hit a three-run homer in the top of the 10th, Rincon finished up the
rest.
REDS: HOMER BAILEY
July 2, 2013
In case you were wondering why the Reds signed the Christian Bale lookalike to
that massive deal, the guy did throw two no-hitters in the span of nine months
just six years ago, including this one
against the Giants.
NATIONAL LEAGUE
EAST
BRAVES: KENT MERCKER
April 8, 1994
Greg Maddux never threw a no-hitter for the Braves. John Smoltz never threw a
no-hitter for the Braves. Tom Glavine never threw a no-hitter for the Braves.
But Mercker threw
two. (To be fair, he only threw six innings of the first one.)
MARLINS: EDINSON
VÓLQUEZ
June 3, 2017
Much has gone down in Miami since Volquez's
no-hitter, that's for sure.
METS: JOHAN SANTANA
June 1, 2012
Mets fans thought they would never see a no-hitter. An argument
could be made that they only had to sacrifice the rest of
Santana's career.
NATIONALS: MAX SCHERZER
October 3, 2015
This was Scherzer's second no-hitter of
the season and nearly his second of the week. Oh yeah, he also struck out 17.
PHILLIES: COLE HAMELS
July 25, 2015
Hamels, along with Ryan Howard, was one of the last Phillies left standing from
the 2008 World Series championship team, so it was fitting that the MVP of that
Series finished off his Phillies career with a no-hitter.
(He was traded to the Rangers before his next start.)
NATIONAL LEAGUE
WEST
D-BACKS: EDWIN JACKSON
June 25, 2010
Jackson tossed one of baseball's most wild no-hitters, walking eight(!),
striking out six and throwing 149 pitches. Jackson, who is one team away from
setting the MLB record for most
different teams played for, is currently a free agent.
DODGERS: WALKER
BUEHLER, TONY CINGRANI, YIMI GARCÍA, ADAM
LIBERATORE
May 4, 2018
Buehler was a huge part of the Dodgers' success last season, particularly down
the stretch and into October, when he beat the Rockies in a Game 163 tiebreaker
for the NL West title before pitching well in the postseason as Los Angeles
reached the World Series for the second consecutive year.
GIANTS: CHRIS HESTON
June 9, 2015
Heston famously hit three batters in his no-hitter.
He started 31 games for the Giants that year, but after 2015, he only won one
more game the rest of his career.
PADRES: NONE
Date of franchise's first game: April 8, 1969
The Padres remain the only team that has never thrown a no-hitter. Only one San
Diego pitcher, Christopher Young, has taken a no-hitter into the ninth in the
past 20 years. Some Padres fans believe the team is cursed to never have a
no-hitter because in 1970, manager Preston Gomez pulled Clay Kirby after eight
innings of no-hit ball against the Mets. Jack Baldschun, the man who relieved
him, gave up three runs in the ninth, and only Young has come close since. They
almost had a combined no-hitter in 2011, but Luke Gregerson, the fifth pitcher,
gave up a double to Juan Uribe with two out in the ninth of a 0-0 game. (The
Padres lost the game on the next batter.) Tyson Ross gave it a
good go last season, as well.
ROCKIES: UBALDO
JIMÉNEZ
April 17, 2010
Still the only no-hitter in
Rockies history. Kyle Freeland came within two outs of
throwing one in 2017.
AMERICAN LEAGUE
EAST
BLUE JAYS: DAVE STIEB
Sept. 2, 1990
Stieb, one of the most unappreciated great pitchers of the past 30 years, had
taken no-hitters into the ninth inning three times before he finally got
one. This is the only no-hitter in Blue Jays history.
ORIOLES: BOB MILACKI (6 IP), MIKE FLANAGAN (1 IP), MARK
WILLIAMSON (1 IP), GREGG OLSON (1 IP)
July 13, 1991
As we saw with the most recent Dodgers no-hitter, it's a little strange when
a no-hitter is
finished by a one-inning reliever; he always looks a little more excited than
his contribution necessarily would merit. After this game, then-A's manager
Tony LaRussa, whose team had just been no-hit, said,
"Everybody congratulated different people. Nobody knew who to shake hands
with."
RAYS: MATT GARZA
July 26, 2010
Garza faced the minimum number of batters; he walked a batter who was erased by
a double play in the third inning. Opposing pitcher Max Scherzer of the Tigers
actually took his own no-hit bid into the sixth inning. This remains the only
no-hitter in Rays history
RED SOX: JON LESTER
May 19, 2008
This no-hitter was
less than two years after Lester had faced down cancer, and it was also the
game that gave Jason Varitek the all-time lead for no-hitters caught (Carlos
Ruiz later tied him).
Varitek's no-hitters caught:
Hideo Nomo: April 4, 2001
Derek Lowe: April 27, 2002
Clay Buchholz:
April 1, 2007
Lester: May 19, 2008
YANKEES: DAVID CONE
July 18, 1999
It certainly feels like the Yankees have had one since this one, but they haven't.
Cone unquestionably has the most iconic post-perfect game pose, that mix of
disbelief and euphoria only perfect games can provide. And don't forget that it
was also Yogi Berra Day. The ceremonial first pitch was thrown to Berra by Don
Larsen in a recreation of the final pitch of Larsen's World Series perfect game
in 1956.
AMERICAN LEAGUE
CENTRAL
INDIANS: LEN BARKER
May 15, 1981
For all the great pitchers the Indians have had, they've still had only Barker's
perfect game to hold them for nearly 40 years now. Pitchers
who threw no-hitters for the Indians before Barker include two Hall of Famers:
Dennis Eckersley and Bob Feller, who threw three. Barker threw only 19 balls
the whole game.
ROYALS: BRET SABERHAGEN
August 26, 1991
The last guy you want to face when you're trying to hang on to your first career
no-hitter is Frank Thomas, but Saberhagen got him to ground
out to second base to finish it off.
TIGERS: JUSTIN
VERLANDER
May 7, 2011
This was Verlander's second no-hitter, nearly four years after his first. He
almost threw a third one four years later, losing it on a Chris Iannetta hit
with one out in the ninth.
TWINS: FRANCISCO
LIRIANO
May 3, 2011
Liriano had one of the
most fortunate no-hitters ever: He walked six batters and
only struck out two.
WHITE SOX: PHILIP HUMBER
April 21, 2012
Humber, who appeared in his last MLB game just 18 months after this game, ended
up with only 16 wins in his career. Handily, one of those 16 was a perfect
game. He ended up with a 6.44 ERA in 2012. This one had a fun
ending, too, with the final out being a strikeout that got behind catcher A.J.
Pierzynski, who had to throw out the runner from the backstop.
AMERICAN LEAGUE
WEST
ANGELS: JERED WEAVER
May 2, 2012
Four years earlier, Weaver had thrown the first six innings of a no-hitter in a
game against the Dodgers, with the unfortunate caveat that he got the loss in
that game. What was he
thinking when he finished off his "real" no-hitter?
"I had to pee so bad."
ASTROS: MIKE FIERS
August 21, 2015
The Astros had just traded for Fiers as a stretch-run acquisition the month
before, and this was his first win
for them. He ended up throwing a total of one postseason inning for Houston.
ATHLETICS: SEAN MANAEA
April 21, 2018
Manaea silenced a red-hot Red Sox offense, one that would eventually help lead
Boston to a World Series title.
MARINERS: JAMES PAXTON
May 8, 2018
Paxton's no-hitter brings
us to 297 total no-hitters in the big leagues. We could hit the 300 mark this
year.
RANGERS: KENNY ROGERS
July 28, 1994
Fun factoid about Rogers' perfect game:
It was called by a career Minor League umpire who only worked a total of eight
MLB games behind the plate.
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