Oakland A's pitcher Sean Manaea has just no-hit baseball's hottest team. The A's beat the Boston Red Sox 3-0 snapping an 8-game winning streak and handing them only their third loss in 20 games this season. This marks the first time the Red Sox have been on the wrong end of a no-hitter since 1993 when Chris Bosio pulled it off for the Seattle Mariners. It's the first A's no-hitter since Dallas Braden's perfect game on Mother Day's in 2010. Manaea's first post-game interview was with Braden who now does color commentary for the A's telecasts.
There were a couple of controversial moments, both of which occurred in the sixth inning. Red Sox catcher Sandy Leon appeared to have a base hit, but the official scorer gave A's shortstop Marcus Semien an error. Moments later it appeared Andrew Benintendi had a single, but the umps ruled Benintendi was out of the baseline and called him out. One wonders if Leon would have been awarded a hit at Fenway Park or if Benintendi would have been awarded a hit if Manaea wasn't in the midst of tossing a no-hitter. But personally, I agreed with both calls.
Whether you agree with the calls or not, Manaea was magnificent. After all, he was up against none other than Chris Sale. Manaea matched Sale with 10 strikeouts apiece. But Sale gave up a double to Jed Lowrie in the first who, believe it or not, is leading the AL in RBI. He also gave up a double in the third to Stephen Piscotty and a home run to Semien in the fifth.
Manaea has been a mainstay of the A's rotation since 2016. Originally a first round draft pick by the Kansas City Royals in 2013, he was traded to Oakland late in the 2015 season for Ben Zobrist. The trade helped the Royals win a World Series that year, but now that they're in last place in the AL Central I can't help but wonder if the Royals would like Manaea back.
My roommate Christopher Kain asked me, "Is this the beginning of Manaea Mania?"
We shall see in Manaea's next start.
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