No-Nos and a Perfecto

NOTE: List updated after 5th no-hitter, Aug 12, 2015

The Seattle Mariners pitched two no-hitters in its first 35 years of existence, but have managed two more in just the last two months!  Today it was Felix Hernandez’s turn.  But King Felix didn’t just keep Tampa Bay hitless at Safeco Field for the team’s fourth no-hitter.  He threw 113 pitches, 12 strikeouts (including 5 of the last 6 men he faced), and kept the Rays from reaching first base.  Period.  No hits, walks, or errors.  27 men up.  27 men down.

It was a perfect game — the first in Mariners history.

Perfectos are rare.  Felix’s perfect game was the 14th in the majors since Seattle became a franchise in 1977, and only the 23rd* in Major League Baseball’s history.  EVER.  It was the second perfect game thrown at Safeco Field.  The first, believe it or not, was thrown just a few months ago: Phillip Humber’s Apr 21, masterpiece for the Chicago White Sox.

While King Felix’s perfecto would be in a Seattle perfect game list of one, his no-hitter joins three others in franchise history.  Those four games — all of them at home — make up today’s list.   Randy Johnson, no stranger to Mariner fans, threw a perfect game May 18, 2004, but that was with an Arizona jersey on his back.  He appears on this list for his no-no while playing for Seattle.

Way to go Felix!

NO-HIT GAMES THROWN BY PITCHERS ON THE SEATTLE MARINERS

*It’s the 23rd perfect game in history or, in a different tally, the 21st in what is usually considered the modern era (since 1901) for the sake of most major league records.  Many sources identify Cy Young’s 1904 perfecto as the first in the modern era.  That makes Hernandez’s gem the 21st.  But if you include two perfect games thrown in June, 1880 — well before the modern era — this afternoon’s performance becomes Number 23.  Sometimes stats are open for interpretation!

August 15th, 2012