Early-season no-hitters

Posted by Andy on April 14, 2010

A lot of times, I write these posts a day or so in advance. As I sit down to write this one on Tuesday evening I see that Ricky Romero has a no-hitter through 6 innings. He's also got 12 strikeouts. Wow.

Here are early-season no-hitters (within a team's first 10 games of the year) thrown in the years covered currently in the PI:

Rk	Player	Date	Tm	Opp	Rslt	App,Dec	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	Pit	Str	GSc	BF	AB	2B	3B	IBB	HBP	SH	SF	GDP	SB	CS	PO	BK	WP	ERA	WPA	RE24	aLI
1	Hideo Nomo	2001-04-04	BOS	BAL	W 3-0	SHO9 ,W	9.0	0	0	0	3	11	0	110	69	95	30	27	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0.00	0.545	4.682	.893

2	Kent Mercker	1994-04-08	ATL	LAD	W 6-0	SHO9 ,W	9.0	0	0	0	4	10	0	131	85	93	31	27	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0.00	0.371	4.369	.721

3	Juan Nieves	1987-04-15	MIL	BAL	W 7-0	SHO9 ,W	9.0	0	0	0	5	7	0			89	31	26	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0.00	0.460	4.802	.750

4	Jack Morris	1984-04-07	DET	CHW	W 4-0	SHO9 ,W	9.0	0	0	0	6	8	0			89	32	26	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0.00	0.386	4.671	.880

5	Ken Forsch	1979-04-07	HOU	ATL	W 6-0	SHO9 ,W	9.0	0	0	0	2	3	0			88	29	27	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.00	0.385	3.976	.640

6	Bob Forsch	1978-04-16	STL	PHI	W 5-0	SHO9 ,W	9.0	0	0	0	2	3	0			88	29	27	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0.00	0.394	3.976	.730

7	Burt Hooton	1972-04-16	CHC	PHI	W 4-0	SHO9 ,W	9.0	0	0	0	7	7	0			87	32	24	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0.00	0.503	4.279	1.135

8	Bill Stoneman	1969-04-17	MON	PHI	W 7-0	SHO9 ,W	9.0	0	0	0	5	8	0			90	31	26	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0.00	0.354	3.996	.755

9	Ken Johnson	1964-04-23	HOU	CIN	L 0-1	CG 9 ,L	9.0	0	1	0	2	9	0			92	31	29	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.00	0.185	2.838	1.165

10	Warren Spahn	1961-04-28	MLN	SFG	W 1-0	SHO9 ,W	9.0	0	0	0	2	5	0			90	27	25	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0.00	0.731	4.298	1.231

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 4/13/2010.

Of course, those years are 1920-1939 and 1952-present. This means that the list is missing perhaps the most famous early-season no-hitter, Bob Feller's opening day no-no in 1940 against the White Sox.

I knew that both Forsch brothers pitched no-hitters but didn't realize that they each pitched one so early in the season.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 14th, 2010 at 7:43 am and is filed under Game Finders. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

14 Responses to “Early-season no-hitters”

Zachary Says:
April 14th, 2010 at 9:03 am
Poor Ken Johnson.

Here's a question: what percentage of no-hitters are perfect games?
ScottE Says:
April 14th, 2010 at 9:09 am
Wasn't the Langston/Witt no-hitter (Angels vs M's) in early April?
Kahuna Tuna Says:
April 14th, 2010 at 9:51 am
Wasn't the Langston/Witt no-hitter (Angels vs M's) in early April?

Yes — 4/11/90, the third game of the season for both teams.

I'd never realized that Langston and Witt were teammates for so short a time. The 1990 season began on April 9, and Witt was traded to the Yankees on May 11. That's only 32 calendar days, and they managed to wedge in a combined no-no during that brief stretch. Wow.
Andy Says:
April 14th, 2010 at 9:52 am
The reason that game doesn't show up is because I looked for games where the starter went at least 9 innings.
Kahuna Tuna Says:
April 14th, 2010 at 9:56 am
Here's a question: what percentage of no-hitters are perfect games?

Eighteen of 263 = 6.8%.
Whiz Says:
April 14th, 2010 at 9:56 am
Zachary,

A quick search using PI team game finder yields 153 no-hit games (1920-1939, 1952-present) of 9 innings or more, and only 12 had no base runners. So it looks like 1 in 12.75 or slightly less than 8% of no-hitters are perfect games.
Whiz Says:
April 14th, 2010 at 9:58 am
Hey Kahuna, you must have used slightly different assumptions? (Or a different database.)
Kahuna Tuna Says:
April 14th, 2010 at 10:25 am
I used off-site databases. [*braces self for thrown objects*] Specifically Wikipedia.

List of MLB no-hitters

List of MLB perfect games
Whiz Says:
April 14th, 2010 at 10:50 am
Nice list, even if it is from Wikipedia 🙂

I love how in some of the early no-hitters the team with no hits scored two runs. Although it wasn't until 1967 that a team with no hits and two runs actually won the game.
failurehood Says:
April 14th, 2010 at 12:31 pm
How many no-hitters in history have earned the pitcher a loss?
purrington Says:
April 14th, 2010 at 1:13 pm
The Forsch no-hitters are eerily similar. Almost exactly one year apart, same number of BBs and Ks, same batters faced and ABs, almost the same final score.
Kahuna Tuna Says:
April 14th, 2010 at 1:38 pm
How many no-hitters in history have earned the pitcher a loss?

The Wikipedia page has that information.

"While the vast majority of no-hitters are shutouts, no-hit teams have managed to score runs in their respective games a number of times, but only twice has a team been no-hit and still won the game. The Cincinnati Reds defeated the Houston Colt .45s (now called the Houston Astros) 1-0 on April 23, 1964, even though they were no-hit by Houston starter Ken Johnson, and the Detroit Tigers defeated the Baltimore Orioles 2-1 on April 30, 1967, even though they were no-hit by Baltimore starter Steve Barber and reliever Stu Miller." (Emphasis added.) Your question seems to ask how many starting pitchers were charged with the loss in no-hit games; Johnson and Barber did take the losses in these games.

Games classified as no-hitters before 1991 include a) no-hit games pitched by visiting teams in which the home team led after the top of the ninth (4, including the Andy Hawkins 0-to-4 and Matt Young 1-to-2 games), b) shortened games (1 loss, in the 1884 Union Association), and c) no-hit games broken up in extra innings (11 losses, of which one was debited to a relief pitcher).

So the broadest answer to your question appears to be 18, with the qualifiers that 16 of those games do not meet the formal present-day definition of a no-hitter. The loss in one of the "non-qualifying" no-hitters was charged to a relief pitcher who pitched only one inning. Eleven of the 18 games went into extra innings, during which the team hitless in regulation got at least one base hit and won the game. Mr. Haddix could quibble, but those aren't really no-hitters. One no-hit loss lasted five innings and took place in a marginal major league in an era when the lone umpire wore a top hat — again, probably not a real no-hitter. The other six no-hit losses were completed in nine innings, although four of the six were pitched by road teams who didn't have to pitch the bottom of the ninth, thus disqualifying those games from the formal present-day definition of a no-hitter. Per the paragraph above, the narrowest answer to your question is two.
Gerry Says:
April 14th, 2010 at 7:29 pm
Stoneman's no-hitter brought the 1969 expansion Expos up to 4-5. They would never be that close to .500 again, finishing 52-110. Comparing that to Jack Morris' 1984 Tigers, I think we can safely say that an early no-hitter has little predictive value for a team's prospects.
Jacob Says:
April 14th, 2010 at 9:11 pm
Pre-Play Index early-season no-hitters (how's that for some hyphens!):

- Addie Joss, 4/20/1910, CLE 1, CHW 0; 5th game
- Rube Marquard, 4/15/1915, NYG 2, BRO 0; 2nd game
- Eddie Cicotte, 4/14/1917, CHW 11, SLA 0; 3rd game
- George Mogridge, 4/24/1917, NYY 2, BOS 1; 9th game
- Bob Feller, 4/16/1940, CLE 1, CHW 0; 1st game
- Tex Carleton, 4/30/1940, BRO 3, CIN 0; 9th game
- Jim Tobin, 4/27/1944, BSN 2, BRO 0; 8th game
- Ed Head, 4/23/1946, BRO 5, BSN 0; 7th game
- Bob Feller, 4/30/1946, CLE 1, NYY 0; 10th game

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