So that happened.
In the same season in which the Mariners have had a perfect game thrown against them and scored 21 runs in a game, the Mariners added another quirky game to their résumé, no-hitting the Dodgers with six different pitchers in a 1-0 victory. Oh, and just to make it a little stranger, the home plate ump Friday night was Brian Runge, the same person who was behind the dish when Philip Humber threw a perfect game at Safeco Field earlier this season.
So joining Randy Johnson and Chris Bosio on the list of pitchers to throw no hitters is KevinMillwoodCharlieFurbushStephenPryorLucasLuetgeBrandonLeagueTomWilhelmsen. The Mariners became the 10th team in MLB history to throw a combined no-hitter, and tied the Astros fro the most pitchers used in a no hitter with six. After the game, Luetge joked that they would have to take the ball that was used for the final out and chop it up with a samurai sword.
Yes, it was a very strange night at Safeco Field.
After six innings, it looked like Millwood alone would be making a bid at history, trying to join the exclusive list of pitchers to throw multiple no-hitters—he also threw one in 2003 with Philadelphia. But facing his final batter in the sixth, Millwood felt something in his groin, and when he tried to come out for the seventh, he realized he was not longer any good to his team.
“I went back out to see if I could keep going and I couldn’t push off, so to stay out there would have just cost us the game,” he said. “… It would have been stupid to try to stay out there.
“It was very frustrating. I felt like I had good stuff and I was throwing the ball where I wanted to, but at the same time, it’s a team game and we’re trying to win a ballgame, so being selfish can’t be part of it.”
What made the game even more intriguing was the fact that the Mariners were in real danger of losing the game, which was tied at zero until the bottom of the seventh when Kyle Seager drove in Ichiro Suzuki (I can’t be the only one who thought the Mariners were going to throw a no-hitter and still find a way to lose).
Rookie Stephen Pryor earned the win, his first in the Major Leagues, which made him the third player in MLB history to earn his first victory in a no-hitter, joining Bobo Holloman &Wilson Alvarez. Of course those two guys did it in slightly more impressive fashion, going all nine innings, but hey, anytime you can join an exclusive club with a guy named Bobo, that has to be a good thing, right?
More to come in tomorrow’s Herald.
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