Sunday, September 12, 2021

Burnes & Hader No-Hit Tribe; Indians' (and Zach Plesac) on Wrong End of No-Hitter for 3rd Time in 2021

Milwaukee Brewers pitchers Corbin Burnes and Josh Hader combined on a no-hitter last night against the Cleveland Indians

Burnes struck out a career high 14 batters over 8 innings while Hader came on for the save to give the 

Brew Crew a 3-0 victory and only their second no-hitter in franchise history. Juan Nieves tossed a no-no for the Brewers against the Baltimore Orioles back in 1987 when the team was in the AL. 

This was the 9th no-hitter of the 2021 season seven of which have been thrown on the road. Honestly, it should be 11 no-hitters. But the other two no-hitters were thrown during doubleheaders which are now 7 innings and MLB has foolishly precluded the possibility of a no-hitter in these contests.

On the other hand, the Cleveland Indians are grateful for this new rule because it would have meant there would have been four no-hitters thrown against them instead of three. The Indians also failed to record a hit on July 7th against five Tampa Bay Rays pitchers in the second game of a doubleheader at Tropicana Field.

Prior to Burnes and Hader's combined effort last night, the Tribe was on the wrong end of a no-hitter on April 14th at the hands of Carlos Rodon of the Chicago White Sox. Just over three weeks later, Cincinnati Reds southpaw Wade Miley no-hit the Indians. Both Miley and the Burnes/Hader effort took place at Cleveland's Progressive Field. 

Zach Plesac has the ignominious distinction of being the losing pitcher in all three no-hitters. The only  other MLB pitcher to be on the wrong end of three no-hitters was Jim Perry. But those didn't all happen in the same season. Perry was on the wrong end of Vida Blue's no-hitter against the Minnesota Twins in 1970 - the year Perry won the AL Cy Young Award. In 1973, when Perry was a member of the Detroit Tigers, he was on the wrong end of Kansas City Royals pitcher Steve Busby's first career no-hitter and Nolan Ryan's second career no-hitter. 

Last night's win reduces the Brewers' magic number to 7 to win the NL Central. 

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