Psssssssst 2021

Tuff Ghost

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The MASN broadcast mentioned that if Means gets through the 9th, this would be the Orioles first single-pitcher no-hitter since Jim Palmer in 1969. Their last no-hitter was a four-pitcher one in 1991: Bob Milacki (6 IP), Mike Flanagan (1 IP), Mark Williamson (1 IP), Gregg Olson (1 IP)
 

normstalls

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I'd have to imagine there have not been many no-hitters with no walks and no errors and still facing the minimum 27 batters
 

Sam Ray Not

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Wooooooooooo!!!!!

Woulda been a perfecto, too, if not for a dropped third strike (that was immediately erased)
 

cannonball 1729

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If Wikipedia's list is complete, it looks like that's the tenth no-hitter where the pitcher(s) faced the minimum but didn't throw a perfect game.
 

ngruz25

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Batter reached on a dropped third strike. Then was thrown out stealing.

Means was really laboring, but good for him getting it done.
I stared at the box score for like 10 minutes trying to figure out how it wasn't a perfect game. I saw that there was a wild pitch by Means, and a caught stealing, but that made no sense to me because it said he faced 27 batters. So where'd the baserunner come from?!

It appears that this is the only no hitter where the only baserunner was from a dropped third strike. Weird and wild stuff.
 

phrenile

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I'd have to imagine there have not been many no-hitters with no walks and no errors and still facing the minimum 27 batters
First ever.
View: https://twitter.com/JoeTrezz/status/1390066858049642499
Joe Trezza
@JoeTrezz
Per the Elias Sports Bureau:

John Means today threw the first non-perfect no-hitter in which the opposing team did not record a walk, hit by pitch or error.

So it's the first in which the only baserunner reached on a dropped 3rd strike.
 

DeadlySplitter

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Yeah, dammit Pedro Severino. But that changeup had amazing downward movement all day including on that wild pitch.
 

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make hers mark
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There’s some precedent I found from research about a no-hitter with the only batter reaching was from a dropped third strike: In Korea. On May 23, 1997, Jeong Min-chul of the Hanwha Eagles threw a no-hitter as part of a larger 8-0 victory against the OB Bears, at Jeonju Baseball Stadium.

Other no hitters with no walks, while also facing the minimum 27: Terry Mulholland in 1990 from a Charlie Hayes error at third and also Lew Burdette in 1960, who had his lone baserunner, Tony González, reach via plunking.
 
Am I the only person who thinks all of these no-hitters so early in a season are a bad thing for baseball? The balance between pitching and hitting is pretty screwed up in favor of pitching - e.g., Joe Sheehan gave this stat in one of his recent newsletters:

Lowest league BA in any month, since 1908
April 1943: .223
April 1909: .226
April 1907: .227
May 1968: .229
April 1968: .230
April 1910: .230
April 2021: .232
April 1908: .232
April 1905: .233

All of the other months on that list are from Deadball eras, or in the case of April 1943, a season in which a shortage of rubber led to the use of a deadened ball. No wonder we're seeing no-nos.
 

Tuff Ghost

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Am I the only person who thinks all of these no-hitters so early in a season are a bad thing for baseball? The balance between pitching and hitting is pretty screwed up in favor of pitching - e.g., Joe Sheehan gave this stat in one of his recent newsletters:

Lowest league BA in any month, since 1908
April 1943: .223
April 1909: .226
April 1907: .227
May 1968: .229
April 1968: .230
April 1910: .230
April 2021: .232
April 1908: .232
April 1905: .233

All of the other months on that list are from Deadball eras, or in the case of April 1943, a season in which a shortage of rubber led to the use of a deadened ball. No wonder we're seeing no-nos.
I've been wondering if the new ball is playing into all of this. The ball supposedly is 1/10 gram lighter, has more drag, and thicker laces (Ringer story, Fangraphs story, and The Athletic story on the new baseball). It looks to me like it has possibly affected Statcast expected statistics, but perhaps it is just a seasonal thing that will even out over the course of the year, or maybe they've tweaked their algorithms. (Alternate theory: Bobby Dalbec's bad luck on hard-hit balls has single-handedly collapsed the whole Statcast-verse into itself.)

The below seasons, besides 2021, are full season numbers (I did not see an easy way to extract montly xBA and xwOBA), so, again, maybe this will normalize over the course of the year, but so far, the expected batting average of MLB is greatly exceeding the actual batting average for the first time.

Year xBA BA BA - xBA xwOBA wOBA wOBA - xwOBA
2015 .240 .254 + .014 .304 .314 + .010
2016 .244 .255 + .011 .310 .319 + .009
2017 .247 .255 + .008 .316 .321 + .005
2018 .240 .248 + .008 .311 .315 + .004
2019 .244 .252 + .008 .316 .320 + .004
2020 .244 .245 + .001 .322 .320 - .002
2021 .249 .234 - .015 .328 .309 - .019
 

cannonball 1729

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Other no hitters with no walks, while also facing the minimum 27: Terry Mulholland in 1990 from a Charlie Hayes error at third and also Lew Burdette in 1960, who had his lone baserunner, Tony González, reach via plunking.
In the notes below the page, Wikipedia notes ten (nine besides Means) no-hitters where the pitcher faced the minimum:

- The Babe Ruth/Ernie Shore classic
- Burdette in 1960
- Warren Spahn in 1961 allowed two baserunners (I believe two is the most baserunners allowed in a minimum-facing no-no)
- Sandy Koufax in 1964
- Mullholland in 1990
- Mark Buehrle in 2007
- Matt Garza in 2010 - the only no-hitter ever thrown by a Ray
- Justin Verlander in 2011
- Edinson Volquez in 2017 (also allowed two baserunners)
 

jcaz

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Old friend Wade Miley through 7 against Cleveland tonight. Maybe he was the ace??
 

cannonball 1729

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Is it just me, or are there a LOT of these this year? Not shocking with the hitting down, but I'm not sure I'm ready for fifteen no-hitters in a season.
 

mauidano

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Would love to watch the A's & Rays but M-Fucking MLB TV has me blacked out for the West Coast teams...in Hawaii.