Throwing a no-hitter, you could say, is like lassoing the moon.
You can see the distant glow, beckoning and teasing all at once. Can you really
get there? Probably not. But you can dream.
اضافة اعلان
On Aug. 13, 1969, in Oakland,
Jim Palmer made the giant leap for
the Baltimore Orioles with nine no-hit innings against the Athletics. It was
the same day that
Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins glided up
Broadway and down Michigan Avenue for ticker-tape parades in New York and
Chicago, followed by a state dinner with President Richard Nixon in Los
Angeles.
Palmer, now 75, has never been to the moon, of course. But the
no-hitter broadened his universe in a way no other Oriole had experienced until
Wednesday, when John Means became the first Baltimore pitcher since Palmer to
toss a complete-game no-hitter. Means subdued the Mariners, 6-0, with 12
strikeouts and no walks in Seattle.
Four Orioles combined for a no-hitter in 1991, but going the
distance set Means’ feat apart. It was his 44th career start and the first to
stretch past the seventh inning. His work days will never be the same.
“Pitching a no-hitter — and pitching a no-hitter with a complete
game now, because they’re so rare — is kind of like a hole in
one,” Palmer said by phone Wednesday night. “It’s funny, when you’re a good
golfer, you look at a par-3, you want to get on the green, you want to make a
birdie. And then you make a hole in one, and for the rest of your life, every
time you tee a ball up on a par-3, you don’t think about birdies — you think
about the possibility of ‘You know what? I could have a hole in one.’
“So for the modern-day pitcher, if you’re John Means, you’ve
never pitched a complete game. You’ve never pitched a no-hitter or a one-hitter
or a two-hitter or a three-hitter, because you’ve never pitched nine innings.
So now, every time he takes the ball, he is well aware — because he’s done it —
that he could pitch a no-hitter, he could pitch a complete game. There’s a
litany of things now, all of a sudden, that come into play.”
Palmer’s path led to three Cy Young Awards, a spot in the Hall
of Fame and a long career as an Orioles broadcaster. He was not working
Wednesday’s game, but he has closely followed Means’ rise from an 11th-round
draft choice in 2014 to an unlikely spot on the opening day roster five years
later.
“I sat with him at his locker in 2019 and he said, ‘You know, I
wasn’t one of the real highly touted prospects, so I could kind of always fly
under the radar,’” Palmer said. “Until he made the club — and it all started
that first weekend. He pitched three or four innings in relief up in Yankee
Stadium, against their A lineup, and they didn’t have a chance. I think he
threw a hanging change-up and Gary Sanchez hit a solo home run. That was it.”
Means, 28, has not hung many change-ups since. He made the
All-Star Game that summer and was the runner-up for the American League Rookie
of the Year Award, going 12-11 with a 3.60 Earned Run Average (ERA). This
season he is 4-0 with a 1.37 ERA.
Last season, though, was wrenching: Means lost his father, Alan,
to pancreatic cancer in August. On Wednesday, as he prepared to secure the
no-hitter, Means thought of his dad.
“I looked in my glove right before I went out there for the
ninth, it had his initials on it, and I said to myself, ‘He wouldn’t care, he’s
just glad that I’m having a good time,’” Means said. “The accolades and
everything like that never mattered to him.”
Even so, Means said, it took him a moment to compose himself
against Dylan Moore, the leadoff hitter in the ninth.
“I got a little bit of the Jell-O legs, started to feel a little
wobbly,” he said. “But once I threw that first pitch, I was able to lock in
again.”
Moore popped out to the third baseman in foul territory. Then
Sam Haggerty struck out on a change-up, the weapon Means learned from pitching
coach Chris Holt at spring training in 2019, the separator that vaulted him to
the majors for good.
Means threw one more pitch, his 113th, and J.P. Crawford punched
it softly on a line to shortstop Ramon Urias, ending the game. Means had faced
the minimum 27 hitters and thrown 26 first-pitch strikes. The only batter who
reached base was Haggerty in the third inning, on a third-strike breaking ball
that skipped past catcher Pedro Severino. Haggerty made it to first without a
throw, but was then caught stealing.
It was the third nine-inning no-hitter of the 2021 season —
after ones by the San Diego Padres’ Joe Musgrove and the Chicago White Sox’s
Carlos Rodon in April — but Means’ performance was unique in modern baseball
history: Never before had a pitcher faced only 27 batters in a nine-inning
no-hitter, with the only runner reaching base on a strikeout/wild pitch.
Only twice before had a pitcher failed to throw a perfect game
despite facing the minimum 27 batters, while allowing no hits or walks. It
happened in 1960 to the Milwaukee Braves’ Lew Burdette, who hit a batter, and
in 1990 to the Philadelphia Phillies’ Terry Mulholland, who allowed a batter to
reach base on an error. Both runners were erased on double plays.
Severino said he felt “very bad” about letting the ball get by
him, though he recovered by pegging Haggerty at second, much like the Phillies’
third baseman in 1990, Charlie Hayes, who made up for his error by lunging to
spear a liner and seal Mulholland’s no-hitter.
In any case, Means was hardly disappointed to miss a perfect
game, which no pitcher has achieved since Felix Hernandez of the Mariners in
August 2012. Means said he had always wanted to throw a no-hitter but never
thought he could even reach the majors. As a boy, he said, he would write “Major
League Baseball (
MLB) player” when asked in school for his life goals, but he
thought it sounded unrealistic.
“I was never that kid who had a ton of confidence in myself,”
Means said.
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