Clay Buchholz loses no-hit bid vs. Rays with no outs in eighth
Red Sox pitcher Clay Buchholz had a no-hitter going through seven innings, but Rays infielder Kelly Johnson singled to lead off the eighth inning.
By
Matt Snyder
•
1 min read
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Red Sox starting pitcher Clay Buchholz had worked through seven shutout innings against the Rays on Sunday afternoon at Fenway Park without allowing a hit. That's right, he was six outs away from a no-hitter.
And then Rays second baseman Kelly Johnson put a broken-bat single into right field to wreck the no-hit bid.
An interesting factor here is that Johnson's hit might have avoided a very tough decision for the Red Sox. Buchholz was already over 100 pitches and could have been looking at a 130-pitch outing if he wanted to complete the no-no -- something that managers tend to avoid in mid-April for most pitchers.
Had Buchholz completed the feat, he'd have thrown his second career no-hitter. He previously threw a no-hitter on Sept. 1, 2007, against Baltimore in only his second big-league start.
Here are the pitchers who have thrown more than one no-hitter in their careers, a group that Buchholz was close to joining:
Nolan Ryan, 7
Sandy Koufax, 4
Bob Feller, 3
Don Wilson, 2
Justin Verlander, 2
Johnny Vander Meer, 2
Virgil Trucks, 2
Bill Stoneman, 2
Warren Spahn, 2
Allie Reynolds, 2
Hideo Nomo, 2
Jim Maloney, 2
Dutch Leonard, 2
Randy Johnson, 2
Ken Holtzman, 2
Bob Forsch, 2
Carl Erskine, 2
Steve Busby, 2
Jim Bunning, 2
Mark Buehrle, 2
