Just three weeks into baseball's 2018 regular season schedule and we've already been treated us to our first no-hitter of the young MLB season. Last night in Oakland, California, Sean Manaea of the Oakland Athletics made history by twirling a no-hitter against the hottest team in all of baseball -- the Boston Red Sox, who entered the game with an MLB-best record of 17-2 and the highest-scoring offense in the league. As if no-hitters weren't already impressive, Manaea managed to throw his against a team that just days earlier became only the seventh ball club in the modern era (since 1900) to win at least 16 of their first 18 games to start a season. In fact, Boston's .895 winning percentage made them the best team in Major League history in a minimum of five games to be no-hit.
Having never logged a single complete-game in his third Major League season, the 26-year old Manaea who's been locked in this season to the tune of a 1.23 ERA thru 5 starts, made sure his first complete game was one for the record books. While the no-no snapped Boston's 8-game win-streak, the longest winning-streak snapped by a no-hitter in the Live-Ball era (since 1920), it snapped an even more impressive streak of 3,987 consecutive games without being no-hit. To find the last no-hitter recorded against the Red Sox, you'd have to go back to April 22, 1993 when Chris Bosio of the Seattle Mariners kept Boston hit-less at the Kingdome. Coincidentally, only the A's have gone longer without being no-hit at 4,242 consecutive games following Saturday.
With 227 no-hitters recorded in the Majors since 1908, Manaea's is just the 54th recorded by a left-hander during that span and the first since Cole Hamels of the Phillies did so against the Cubs on July 25, 2015, and the first Oakland A's pitcher to record a no-no since Dallas Braden's perfect game against the Tampa Bay Rays on Mother's Day in 2010. As for the last no-hitter of any kind, Edinson Volquez of the Marlins was the last to accomplish the feat, no-hitting the Arizona Diamondbacks on June 3, 2017. Manaea's no-hitter is the 12th in A's franchise history and seventh since the team moved to Oakland in 1968. Though he walked two batters including the first batter of the game, Manaea recorded 10 K's in the outing to tie a career-high and stands behind only Catfish Hunter (11) and Dave Stewart (12) for the most strikeouts recorded by an Oakland Athletic during a no-hitter.
A pair of close plays nearly derailed Manaea's historic performance in consecutive innings in the 5th and 6th, but an error and a reversed call would preserve the no-no. With 2-outs in the 5th inning, A's shortstop Marcus Semien would commit an error on a fly-ball he would get under and eventually bobble which allowed Sandy Leone to get on base. Unaware that the play was ruled an error and not a hit, Manaea assumed it was ruled a hit and didn't realize until the 8th inning that his no-hitter was still in tact. But he and the A's would catch another break just an inning later in the 6th, when Andrew Benintendi hit a dribbler down the first base line that first baseman Matt Olson scooped up and attempted to put a tag on Benintendi who ran out of the baseline to elude the tag. After initially being called safe at first, the umpires would gather together for a meeting at the request of A's manager Bob Melvin, where the umpiring crew determined that the runner indeed ran out of the baseline and therefore was called out, much to the disappointment of Benintendi who had thought he bailed his team out with their first hit of the night. From there on, Manaea seemed almost destined to etch his name into the record books, and nine outs later he would do just that.
Semien would more than make up for his 5th inning error by scoring all three of Oakland's only runs, including a solo home run in the bottom of the 5th, providing more than enough offense in the Athletics' 3-0 victory. Since trading away last year's ace Sonny Gray at the trade deadline a year ago to the New York Yankees, Manaea, the former first round pick of the Kansas City Royals appears to be pitching his way to be the next man fit for the job as the A's Opening Day starter -- Kendall Graveman, has been shelled in all five of his starts this season, giving up 4 runs or more in all five outings and currently boasting an ERA of 10.07. Having already made history this season and appearing to find his groove, Manaea will be one of those guys worth keeping an eye on as the season progresses as the A's who currently sit even at 11-11 on the year, look to find their next go-to man on the mound. A pretty cool moment came after the game when Manaea was interviewed on the field by Dallas Braden who last threw a no-no for the A's before Manaea's magical night, before a few of his teammates crashed the party with a Gatorade bath, pie to the face and topped off with a shower of bubblegum, leaving Braden ducking for cover.
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The Unwritten Rule - Several weeks ago, Dallas Braden of the Oakland Athletics made the news for one of the games more bizarre, yet funnier reasons. In an afternoon game at McAfee Coliseum in Oakland against the defending world champion New York Yankees, one of baseball's unwritten rules were broken according to the left-handed Braden. With Yankee slugger Alex Rodriguez on first base, Robinson Cano stood at the plate. Cano hit a high pop-up into foul territory, resulting in Rodriguez to trot around the bases nearing third. Once the ball drifted out into the stands, A-Rod was forced to return to first. When doing so, he decided to take a short cut by crossing the pitcher's mound. Something Dallas Braden wasn't too fond of.The two began exchanging words when Braden yelled out "Get off my mound!", sending him into a tirade after the inning where he furiously threw his glove upon reaching the dugout. In a post-game interview, Braden talked about the incident, calling it a classless move by a player from what many have considered to be the classiest team in sports. He went on to say, "If I've got the ball in my hand and I'm on the mound, that's MY mound. There will be repercussions if it happens again." A-Rod fired back, claiming he never heard of such nonsense and ridiculed Braden's career record of 18-wins and 23-losses by saying, "I was a little surprised, I never quite heard that, especially from a guy who has a handful of wins in his career."
What I want to know is why Rodriguez would step over the mound to begin with? As stupid as it sounds, he risked injuring himself. But then again, A-Rod's been known for doing some very questionable antics in the past, whether they include distracting and shouting "Mine!" behind a Blue Jay player trying to field a routine pop-up or trying to slap the ball out of former Red Sox pitcher Bronson Arroyo's mitt. After nearly three weeks of silence, Braden let it be known that he wasn't finished steaming about the incident that took place weeks earlier. Braden told CSN Bay Area, "There are things that are going to have to happen, possibly ending with knuckles." Again, Rodriguez shot back saying, "Look, I really don't want to extend his extra 15 minutes of fame." And if you asked me, I'd say Braden held his own since then by responding in the biggest of ways.
27 Up, 27 Down - Last Sunday as most celebrated Mother's Day, Braden threw the rarest of the rare -- a perfect game. Braden's gem was the 19th perfect game in Major League history (7th by a lefty), as he became only the second Athletic in franchise history to reach the feat. The other -- Catfish Hunter in 1968. Coincidentally, Braden's remarkable achievement comes on Mother's Day, the same day his mother died 8 years earlier from skin cancer while he was a senior in high school. Braden, a 9th round pick out of Texas Tech University in 2004, struck out six batters and needed only 109-pitches to make history. Braden became the first pitcher to ever throw a perfect game against a team that entered the day with the best record in the majors. With his grandmother in attendance, a touching moment of the two hugging on the field was shared after the celebration that mobbed Braden. "Stick it A-Rod!", Said Braden's grandmother.After trying to hold out from extending Braden's "15 minutes of fame", Rodriguez found himself center stage surrounded by the media once again, being bombarded with questions regarding Braden's record setting day. "He threw a perfect game, good for him. And better yet, he beat the Rays." In a game against the arch-rival Boston Red Sox, A-Rod would make history of his own by connecting for his third home run of the season and the 586th of his career, tying him for 7th on the all-time list with Hall of Famer Frank Robinson. Braden, the guy that A-Rod said only had a handful of wins, now has something only a handful of players have accomplished. With a no-hitter, a perfect game and a 20 inning game already in the books this season, the only thing missing is a good 'ol brawl. Something we could expect when A-Rod and Braden meet again in July. At least that's what I'm hoping for... *DING DING*
