Sanchez’s No-Hitter Special
No-hitters are a fairly common occurrence in Major League Baseball, but Jonathan Sanchez’s no-hitter for the San Francisco Giants last night against the San Diego Padres is a perfect Dinner Topic because there’s plenty of back story to the special event.
For starters, Sanchez has struggled all year and was removed from the starting rotation weeks ago. Sanchez was starting only because Randy Johnson recently went on the disabled list. Topping it off with the best part of the story: Sanchez’s father flew in from Puerto Rico the previous night, and it was the first time his father saw him pitch!! I haven’t been able to find a story that fully explains if that includes the minor leagues, but just the fact that it was his father’s first viewing of his son on a major league mound makes it special.
Even more improbable, Sanchez had never even thrown a shutout in the major leagues. In fact, he had never even thrown a complete game before last night! The story still isn’t over. Sanchez didn’t just throw any no-hitter. He was just one 8th inning error away from a perfect game. For the non-baseball fans out there, a perfect game must have no hits, no walks, and no errors – 27 batters up, 27 batters out. A no-hitter can include walks and errors. Sanchez himself was perfect, walking no one and striking out 11, but Juan Uribe made an error at third base in the 8th inning (in his defense, it was a fairly difficult play) to end the perfect game. Sanchez battled out of that inning, got some help on a great play from outfielder Aaron Rowand, running into the center field wall for the second out of the 9th inning, and Sanchez finished the game in dramatic fashion, striking out the last batter to ignite the celebration.
Needless to say, Jonathan Sanchez likely earned himself a few extra starts in the rotation thanks to last night. He also earned himself a few thousand new fans, one of them he calls “dad.”
The video below shows all 27 outs in less than four minutes!
(Editor’s note: the video has been removed by MLB)
Read on:
ESPN.com – Sanchez makes most of opportunity, throws no-hitter in front of father
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