No No-No: The Much Attempted & Much Eluded Indians No Hitter

Bartolo Colon, September 18th, 2000. Billy Traber, July 8th, 2003. Kevin Millwood, May 9th, 2005. Scott Kazmir, July 24th, 2013. Josh Tomlin, June 28th, 2014. Corey Kluber, May 13th, 2015 and now Carlos Carrasco, July 1st, 2015.

None of these names and dates are remembered in the way that Len Barker, May 15th, 1981 is in Cleveland although all were nearly equal in merit. Each one of those dates listed above marks a time when an Indians starting pitcher threw at least eight innings and allowed one or less hits. In each of these games the Indians won and only in two were runs scored by the opposing team, only one of those being earned and that one came last night.

Ever since that date in 1981, the Cleveland Indians have been unable to reach perfection and not only that, they have been unable to no hit a team. Over the past three nights, the Indians have pitched a perfect game through five innings in each game, something that hasn’t happened in baseball since 1961, but none have been able to finish it out. As seen by Kluber’s name above, this isn’t the first time an Indian has been close to a no hitter this year. In addition to those four games, Trevor Bauer threw six no hit innings in his first start this year, but was pulled due to a high pitch count. With all these attempts, it certainly seems that at some point, the Indians will have to luck into a no hitter.

Beyond the no hitter, the Indians have been extremely close to perfection on multiple occasions since 2000. In Kluber’s attempt earlier this season, he only pitched eight innings (mostly thanks to his 18 strike outs that lead to 113 pitches), but allowed just one hit and one hit batter, no walks. Last year, Josh Tomlin allowed just a single Kyle Seager base hit in the sixth inning (followed by a wild pitch and Yan Gomes error) that ruined his perfect attempt. If Seager hadn’t hit that 0-1 pitch to left, this discussion would be completely unnecessary. Millwood gave up just a double and a hit batter in his eight one hit innings against the Angels in 2005 and in 2003, Traber came as close as anyone when he gave up just a single to John Flaherty against the Yankees to lead off the third.

All this may seem negative, but it actually points to two different things. First, the Indians have had a lot of great pitchers in their history. Not just recently, but overall, they have had 14 no hitters by 11 different pitchers. Of these, four came before 1920 (two in 1908 alone, including the first perfect game ever by Addie Joss), six came between 1931 and 1951 and just four since the Curse of Rocky Colavito began. Seven of these no hitters were pitched by four eventual Hall of Famers, Joss, Bob Feller, Bob Lemon and Dennis Eckersley. For more on the Indians no hitters, check out NoNoHitters.

The current group of starters don’t have the career numbers yet, but their yearly stats since 2014 rank up there with each of those greats. Last year, they broke the Major League record for strike outs in a season and this they already have three starters (Kluber, Carrasco and Danny Salazar) with 100 strike outs by the second of July with Bauer just ten away from joining them.

The second part is how difficult it really is to throw a no hitter. Even holding batters to one hit in 28 at bats equates to a .036 batting average, a number not even questionably sustainable for the greatest closer in baseball over nine separate innings, certainly not something a starter could be expected to do consecutively. Making it even more difficult is the fact that the pitcher has to face the same batters three times each and when doing so this year, Carrasco’s normal .261 average against jumps to .297. Obviously he was a little better than that last night.

While Carrasco did strike out a career best 13, that left 14 outs to record by the rest of the team and there were a few chances, even before he gave up the no hitter in the bottom of the ninth, for the Rays to get base hits. In these he was either saved by his defense (like this play by Carlos Santana) or they at least made a routine play, despite looking silly (like this play by Michael Bourn). Almost all no hit attempts come with a terrific play or two (who can forget Rick Manning‘s jumping catch in 1981?) and this one had plenty including a couple more by Santana and great gems from Mike Aviles at short stop and Giovanny Urshela at third.

There is a lot of credit to go around for a fantastic game like this one including to Mickey Callaway for his help in preparation, the defense and Brandon Moss for providing an insurmountable lead, but the most credit goes to Carlos Cookie Carrasco himself for giving the Tribe their most recent entry in the challenge to record the next perfect game in Cleveland Indians history. Of course, no one could say it better than Carrasco himself before receiving a well deserved Gatorade shower.