The Rays defeat the Tigers 5-0 as Matt Garza pitches the first no-hitter in Tampa Bay Rays history. He retired 26 of 27 batters faced, issuing one walk. That walk was erased on a double play. Matt threw 120 pitches, 80 for strikes. The Tigers put 20 balls in play, but except for a Miguel Cabrera line out to leftfield, not many were hit hard.
This is the fifth official no-hitter of the season. The Rays suffered Dallas Braden‘s perfect game on May 9th, and Edwin Jackson‘s less than perfect game on June 26th. The Tigers, of course, almost had the third perfect game of the year when an umpire’s blown call cost Armando Galarraga a place in history. Five no-hitters in a season is the most since there were seven in 1991.
Not sure how you calculate the probability of a no-hitter, but when you have batting averages of .250, .206, .204, .182 and .000 in the line-up, the chances have to be about as good as they get. If you get Cabrerra to hit a couple of balls at people, you’re halfway there.
Remember when the Twins were forced to trade Johann Santana because they wouldn’t be able to keep him? The baseball talking heads were lamenting that this is what happens to small market teams.
But it’s looking more and more that Garza and Bartlett for Delmon Young hurt the Twins more.