Astros’ Verlander throws 3rd career no-hitter
TORONTO >> Justin Verlander pitched his third career nohitter, punctuating a dominant season by striking out 14 to lead the Houston Astros past the Toronto Blue Jays 2-0 on Sunday.
Verlander is just the sixth pitcher in major league history to throw at least three no-hitters.
The right-hander became the first pitcher to throw two no-hitters as a visitor in the same park — he also threw one at Rogers Centre in 2011 with Detroit. His other nono was in 2007 for the Tigers against Milwaukee.
Verlander allowed only one runner, with Cavan Biggio drawing a one-out walk in the first inning. The Blue Jays, with a lineup full of young, aggressive batters, never came close to a hit.
“I can’t put it into words,” Verlander said, moments after the final out.
The 36-year-old Verlander joined Nolan Ryan (seven), Sandy Koufax (four) and Bob Feller, Cy Young and 1880sera Larry Corcoran (three) in rarefied air on the nohitter list.
“Some of the guys I’ve idolized,” Verlander said.
And it came after a series of near-misses over the years.
Verlander lost a no-hit try in the eighth inning late in 2011, had bids broken in the ninth in 2012 and 2015 and had another attempt spoiled last May in the seventh by Jose Abreu of the White Sox.
“I’ve come so close to the third one so many times,” Verlander said.
On this afternoon, he brought it home. Verlander threw a season-high 120 pitches, mixing a fastball that reached the upper 90s mph with a sharp curve.
Verlander retired the last 26 hitters in a row. But he still needed help because the game was scoreless going into the last inning — according to baseball rules, Verlander had to pitch a complete game to get credit for a no-hitter.
That’s when Canadianborn rookie Abraham Toro stepped up for the AL West leaders. The Astros newcomer hit a two-out, tworun
N.Y. Yankees 4, Oakland 3, 11 innings Toronto 6, Houston 4
Tampa Bay 9, Cleveland 6 Detroit 10, Minnesota 7 Kansas City 7, Baltimore 5 Texas 3, Seattle 2
Atlanta 11, Chicago White Sox 5 L.A. Angels 10, Boston 4
Sunday’s games
Houston 2, Toronto 0 Boston 4, L.A. Angels 3 Tampa Bay 8, Cleveland 2 Minnesota 8, Detroit 3 N.Y. Yankees 5, Oakland 4 Kansas City 6, Baltimore 4 Seattle 11, Texas 3 Chicago White Sox at Atlanta
Monday’s games
Texas (Minor 11-8) at N.Y. Yankees (Tanaka 10-7), 1:05 p.m. Baltimore (Wojciechowski 2-7) at Tampa Bay (Yarbrough 11-3), 1:10 p.m. Minnesota (Odorizzi 14-6) at Detroit (Zimmermann 1-9), 1:10 p.m. Toronto (TBD) at Atlanta (Soroka 10-3), 1:20 p.m.
Seattle (Sheffield 0-1) at Chicago Cubs (Hendricks 9-9), 2:20 p.m. Houston (Cole 15-5) at Milwaukee (Houser 6-5), 4:10 p.m.
Chicago White Sox (Detwiler 2-4) at Cleveland (Civale 2-3), 7:10 p.m. homer in the ninth inning off Ken Giles (2-3) that cleared the way for Verlander Atlanta Washington Philadelphia New York Miami St. Louis Chicago Milwaukee Cincinnati Pittsburgh Los Angeles Arizona Giants San Diego Colorado
Saturday’s games
89 70 66 64 59 50 67 70 72 79 .640 .511 .485 .471 .428 St. Louis 10, Cincinnati 6, 1st game Milwaukee 2, Chicago Cubs 0 N.Y. Mets 6, Philadelphia 3 _ 18 21 1⁄2 23 1⁄2 29 1⁄2 to complete the nohitter.
Toro made a routine play Washington 7, Miami 0
St. Louis 3, Cincinnati 2, 2nd game Atlanta 11, Chicago White Sox 5 Arizona 6, L.A. Dodgers 5 Pittsburgh 11, Colorado 4
San Diego 4, Giants 1
Sunday’s games
St. Louis 4, Cincinnati 3, 1st game Washington 9, Miami 3 Milwaukee 4, Chicago Cubs 0 Pittsburgh 6, Colorado 2
San Diego 8, Giants 4
L.A. Dodgers 4, Arizona 3, 11 innings Chicago White Sox at Atlanta Cincinnati at St. Louis, 2nd game N.Y. Mets at Philadelphia
Monday’s games
N.Y. Mets (Syndergaard 9-7) at Washington (Ross 3-3), 1:05 p.m.
Toronto (TBD) at Atlanta (Soroka 10-3), 1:20 p.m.
Philadelphia (Smyly 2-6) at Cincinnati (DeSclafani 9-7), 2:10 p.m.
Giants (Samardzija 9-10) at St. Louis (Wainwright 9-9), 2:15 p.m. Seattle (Sheffield 0-1) at Chicago Cubs (Hendricks 9-9), 2:20 p.m. Houston (Cole 15-5) at Milwaukee (Houser 6-5), 4:10 p.m.
San Diego (Quantrill 6-5) at Arizona (Leake 10-10), 4:10 p.m. Colorado (Lambert 2-5) at L.A. Dodgers (Buehler 11-3), 8:10 p.m. on Bo Bichette’s grounder to third base for the last out.
Verlander joked the
Totals New York
LeMahieu 3b Judge rf Torres 2b Sanchez c Gregorius ss Voit 1b Gardner cf Frazier dh Ford ph-dh Tauchman lf
Totals Oakland New York 29 AB
4 3 3 3 4 2 4 2 1 2
28 4 R
1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1
5 4 H
2 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0
6 4 7 9 BIBBSO
0 0 1 0 2 0 1 0 1 0
5
0 1 0 1 0 2 0 1 0 1
6 000 000 310 — 000 000 032 —
1 1 0 1 1 1 3 0 0 0
8 4 5
No outs when winning run scored. a-walked for Pinder in the 7th; bhomered
Avg
.335 .278 .285 .233 .253 .276 .249 .280 .236 .275
40 60
22-year-old Toro, playing just his eighth game in the majors, was in for quite a nice reward.
This was the fourth nohitter in the majors this year. The last one was by the Astros, too, a combined effort from Aaron Sanchez, Will Harris, Joe Biagini and Chris Devenski (9) against Seattle on Aug. 3.
Oakland’s Mike Fiers and a tandem effort by Taylor Cole and Felix Pena of the Angels accounted for this year’s other gems.
Verlander (17-5) is tied for the big league lead in wins. He tops the majors in strikeouts (257) and innings (193) and leads the AL with a 2.56 ERA.
With the crowd of 24,104 getting to its feet to begin the ninth, Verlander retired Brandon Drury on an easy grounder and struck out Reese McGuire.
After that second out, catcher Robinson Chirinos went to the mound for a quick visit with Verlander. The count went full on Bichette, who fouled off a pitch before hitting a bouncer to Toro. for Frazier in the 9th.
Oakland 5, New York 6; Davis (9), Neuse (1); Olson (28), off Adams, Gardner (19), off Hendriks, Ford (10), off Hendriks; Neuse 2 (2), Phegley (53), Olson (69), Torres (78), Gregorius 2 (47), Gardner (55), Ford (16); Torres;
Oakland 2 (Phegley, Semien), New York 2 (Tauchman); Oakland 1 for 8, New York 1 for 4; Phegley; Profar, Olson, Torres; Oakland 1 (M.Chapman, Neuse, Olson), New York 2 (Gregorius, Voit, Gregorius, Torres, Voit); Home, Stu Scheuwater, First, Alan Porter, Second, Jim Reynolds, Third, Sean Barber; 3:17; 42,860 (47,309).
LOB: SF: Runners left in scoring position: RISP: Runners moved up: DP: Umpires:
Manaea 5 1 0 0 Petit 1 1 0 0 Diekman H,7 1 0 1 1 Trivino 1⁄3 1 2 2 Hendriks L,4-2 BS,17-22 2⁄3 0 1 211.77
Happ 6 Dull 1 Adams 1 Ottavino W,6-4 1
0 4 5 98 5.34 3 2 1 2627.00 1 0 2 24 7.54 0 1 1 16 1.69
Trivino 1-1,
Inherited runners-scored:
Hendriks 2-2.
HR: RBIs: T:
1 2 1 0
0 3 1 0
2B: A:
3 0 2 1 3
5 1 1 0 2
GIDP:
82 0.00 18 2.89 26 5.40 13 5.49 2