04/19/24
April 21, 2018
SportsFilter: The Saturday Huddle:
A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.
A no-hitter against any pro team is huge. Against the 2018 Red Sox to date is remarkable.
posted by cixelsyd at 12:09 AM on April 22, 2018
I saw a few innings on TV while switching back and forth with the Bruins. Manea was sharp with a changeup that was consistently hitting the black on his glove side corner. There were one or two questionable plays. First, there was a bloop into short left center that the shortstop got a glove on but dropped. The play-by-play crew thought it might go as a hit, but to this umpire it was ordinary effort for a major league shortstop, and it was correctly ruled an error. The other play involved a batter-runner running out a ground ball. The fielder attempted a tag short of the base, but the batter-runner dove toward foul territory, evaded the tag, and reached his left arm out to touch the base. The original call was safe on an infield hit. Again, my umpire eyes agreed with the call, but after a conference it was overturned and the runner called out for being out of the baseline. It was a tight call, and I believe it was the plate umpire who convinced the 1st base umpire to change the call. The plate blue would have had a better angle, but I think perhaps he was thinking that there's no way a no-hit game should be taken away in the 6th inning on something that cheap. As a fan of the game, not necessarily of one team or the other, I approve of that sort of logic.
posted by Howard_T at 02:05 PM on April 22, 2018
I saw a few innings on TV while switching back and forth with the Bruins.
I did the same and can't decide if I'm glad or sad I didn't sit through all 9 innings because it marked the first time in 50 years the Sox were no-hit when I didn't watch the whole thing. It was less painful than the Bosio one on a random ESPN Sunday night and nothing close to the childhood ache of watching Righetti no hit them on the Fourth of July.
posted by yerfatma at 02:28 PM on April 23, 2018
I remember when Tom Phoebus no-hit the Sox in 68. It didn't get an overwhelming amount of attention because the overall level of pitching brilliance in MLB was off the charts that year.
Phoebus was a rising star when he entered the league and shocked no one when he threw his gem. Two years later, he was on his way to being an afterthought, as the Orioles' starting rotation was becoming locked and loaded for the ages with the likes of Cuellar, Palmer, et al.
Edit: just realized that in 4 days, it'll be the 50th anniversary of that Phoebus no-hitter.
posted by beaverboard at 06:51 PM on April 23, 2018
50th anniversary of a fantastic unibrow too!
posted by yerfatma at 12:17 PM on April 25, 2018
Sean Manaea throws a no-hitter against the league-leading Boston Red Sox.
Boston had won their previous 8 games by a combined 60-16 score. They led the league in runs scored and in AVG/OBP/SLG.
That's like defeating a video game while playing on the hardest difficulty.