Manaea basks in glow of ‘pretty cool’ no-hitter
OAKLAND >> Sean Manaea walked through the entryway of the A’s clubhouse Sunday and to his right were two flat screen televisions showing highlights of his no-hitter against the Boston Red Sox on an endless loop.
By now, the moment is ingrained in Manaea’s memory — a ground ball by Hanley Ramirez to Marcus Semien, the play made at first base, and jumping into the arms of joyous catcher Jonathan Lucroy. It was the same every time he watched it, which took up much of his time Saturday night when he left the Coliseum and got to his apartment.
Manaea told reporters he hadn’t slept after a 3-0 win and the 12th no-hitter in franchise history.
“I watched it over and over,” Manaea said. “It was pretty cool, I’m not going to lie about that.”
There was Manaea thrusting his arms skyward, the dogpile with his teammates, and an ear-to-ear smile which he saw again when he reached his parents Sam and Opal Manaea on facetime at their home in Florida.
There were no tears, Manaea said, but his parents were “super, super happy.
Manaea
Like me, they couldn’t get the smile off their face. It was a pretty awesome moment.”
Next up was calling his girlfriend Megan, who was in Mexico celebrating as friend’s birthday. Manaea said he received more than 200 text messages, with his Twitter and Instagram accounts getting heavy traffic as well.
Included in the Twitter salutes was even one from Ramirez, who made the last out for the Red Sox.
“I haven’t responded back to him, but it was a really cool gesture and it’s cool coming from him,” Manaea said. “The first couple of at-bats I ever saw him I think there were two balls (he hit) that I don’t think have landed yet. He’s got me a couple of times before and yesterday was just one of those days.”
A’s manager Bob Melvin was caught up in the moment after seeing Manaea walk two and strike out 10 in improving his record to 3-2. It was Manaea’s first major league complete game in 58 starts.
“Those types of games take on a different feeling than just a regular-season game,” Melvin said. “Toward the end, and of course the last out, it feels more like a post-season type of thing. Then the aftermath in the clubhouse as well. You don’t see that very often. Literally, it’s baseball history and you should feel good about being at a game like.”
Semien felt the electricity over the last few innings.
“It’s a lot more amplified when everybody is standing
up and cheering and in to every pitch from probably the sixth or seventh inning on, and they were standing in the ninth inning so it was pretty special,” Semien said. “It was real loud.”
Melvin marveled at how far the 6-foot-5 left-hander has come since he first arrived in 2016.
“The thing that impresses me is he’s doing it differently than when he got here,” Melvin said. “He was throwing 96, 97 miles an hour and he was a two-pitch guy,” Melvin said. “With his stuff, he could get away with making some mistakes. Now he’s throwing 90, 92 and his command is that much better. He’s a three-pitch pitcher now.”
The closest thing to a hit against Manaea was a pop up by Sandy Leon that Semien dropped in the fifth inning. The official scorer ruled it an error, but Manaea believed it was a hit and as a result pitched pressure-free until he realized in the eighth he had a no-hitter going.
“The entire time I was just super relaxed and I wasn’t thinking about throwing a no-hitter,” Manaea said. “I was just going
out there and pitching as long as I could. I think that definitely helped calm me down and not think about it too much.”
In Semien’s mind, it was an error all the way. He said he momentarily lost focus when center fielder Mark Canha called his name.
Semien was only to happy to do his job to finish off the no-hitter.
“I was just thinking to make the play, get the out, and the result would be a no-hitter, which is awesome for Sean,” Semien said. “It’s about the pitcher, it’s not about us.”
One man who knew how Manaea was feeling in the ninth inning was NBC Sports Bay Area correspondent Dallas Braden, who threw the last no-hitter for the A’s with a perfect game on Mother’s Day in 2010.
“(Sean) had never seen the ninth inning before that moment,” Braden said. “I was the same way. I had no idea what a big league mound looked like in the ninth inning before I got out there that day. I could tell, with his breathing patterns and the way he was spraying the ball early in the first at-bat, that there were emotions.”