Iwakuma’s gem ends AL no-hitter drought
SEATTLE — After years of waiting, the drought finally ended thanks to the Seattle Mariners’ Hisashi Iwakuma.
No, not Iwakuma becoming just the second Japanese pitcher to throw a no-hitter in Major League Baseball — as important an accomplishment as that was — joining Hideo Nomo in exclusive company when he shut down the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday.
That ended the run of 12 straight no-hitters — 11 individual and one combined — thrown by National League pitchers.
Almost three years to the day that teammate Felix Hernandez threw a perfect game against the Tampa Bay Rays, Iwakuma finally ended the drought for the American League.
It’s a rare stat and in many ways likely just an odd coincidence. But it also highlights the difficulty of pitching in the American League, where there simply are no free outs thanks to the designated hitter.
“I think the outs are tougher. Look, the lineups are deeper. The DH’s in the American League, the DH’s are animals,” Seattle manager Lloyd McClendon said. “Those are tough outs. There really are no easy outs in the American League.”
Four of the last five no-hitters in American League ballparks have come at Safeco Field. Prior to Hernandez’s perfect game, six Seattle pitchers combined on a no-hitter in June 2012 against the Los Angeles Dodgers and unknown Phillip Humber threw a perfect game for the Chicago White Sox against the Mariners that April.
The only other AL park to see a no-hitter since 2011: Angels Stadium, where Jered Weaver threw his no-hitter in May 2012, less than two weeks after Humber’s perfect game.