San Diego Padres beginning pitcher Dylan Stop made MLB historical past on Thursday, tossing a no-hitter in opposition to the Washington Nationals. Nonetheless, out of the 324 no-nos recorded all time, his was distinctive.
Stop is barely the 18th pitcher to throw a no-hitter on 114 pitches or extra, with 9 strikeouts and three or fewer walks. That listing contains Corridor of Famers Nolan Ryan (twice), Dave Stewart, Randy Johnson and Roy Halladay.
No-hitters have greater than doubled during the last decade, leaping from 14 between 2000-09 to 33 from 2010-19. In the meantime, Stop’s was the fifteenth since 2020, however how he completed his feat is essentially fading away.
In comparison with the one different no-hitter of 2024, pitched by Ronel Blanco of the Houston Astros, Stop’s stat line seems to be decidedly old-school. Blanco wanted solely 105 pitches and threw extra strikes (74 to 71) whereas hovering across the similar strikeout (seven) to stroll (two) ratio.
Six of the final seven no-hitters have come on 108 pitches or much less, with Michael Lorenzen’s in 2023 (124) being the one exception. We’re practically midway via the 2020s, however that starkly contrasts the earlier decade, which noticed 27 thrown on that many pitchers or extra.
Together with the uptick in analytics and larger care concerning a pitcher’s workload, outings like Stop’s are few and much between. Whereas seeing a participant prime 100 pitches has but to develop into uncommon, few managers let their hurlers go a lot additional.
Maybe that is why, regardless of recording video games of at the very least 113 pitches in consecutive seasons, Stop wanted to plead his case with supervisor Mike Shildt to remain within the recreation and full his no-hitter.
Stop is barely the fourth participant to throw 114 pitches or extra in a recreation this season, becoming a member of Chris Bassitt (115), Zack Wheeler (115, 114) and JP Sears (114). However the trio wasn’t practically as environment friendly, averaging solely 6.2 innings (5 hits, three walks, one earned run) of their 4 outings mixed.
There are many no-hitters to return in baseball’s future, nevertheless it is perhaps some time earlier than the diamond sees one other like Stop’s.
