Dominant Games: Bret Saberhagen No-Hitter

Curve ball hit right to Terry Shumpert. He’s gonna get it! Bret Saberhagen pitches the first no hitter of his career as he shuts out the Sox 7-0.

—Ken Harrelson, White Sox broadcaster.

This is part of an ongoing series where I examine some of the greatest games ever pitched and attempt to rank them using a method I developed. Make sure to check out the introduction, as well as the other articles in the series.

On August 26, 1991, the Chicago White Sox took on Bret Saberhagen and the Royals in Kansas City. The Royals scored early and often against White Sox knuckleballer Charlie Hough. Left fielder Kirk Gibson did most of the damage with a walk, single, triple and three runs scored by the end of the fourth inning. The Royals scored twice in the first, added three more in the third and another two in the fourth, to build a 7-0 lead chasing Hough from the game after a mere 2.2 innings.

It was a forgone conclusion that the Royals were going to win this one, so the only thing left for White Sox broadcasters to do keep Chicago partisan viewers was to mention a possible no-hitter as soon and as often as possible.  Ken “Hawk” Harrelson talked about the White Sox not having any hits as early as the fourth and his partner Tom Paciorek was hoping to “put the doubly whammy on him right now,” by mentioning the no-hitter outright.

Saberhagen had a relatively easy time of it. Ron Karkovice hit a ball in the third that went just foul. In the fifth, Dan Pasqua hit a ball to left which ticked off Gibson’s glove. The play was ruled an error on Gibson which kept the no-hitter in tact. Saberhagen retired the next fourteen of fifteen batters to finish off the no-hitter.

Dominance: 5/10

Saberhagen had a dominant fastball, but also had trouble putting some hitters away. He only had five strikeouts. Many hitters were chasing high fastballs, but were able to foul them off. The broadcasters mentioned a few times that Saberhagen was staying with his good fastball for strikes, and was also unwilling to give up a hit on anything other than his fastball. He kept his curveball mostly down out of the strike zone.

Efficiency: 6/10

He threw 114 pitches facing 30 hitters (3.8 p/b). There were a lot of short at bats and a lot of long at bats. 10 of those 30 hitters went down in either 1 or 2 pitches, while seven batters had AB’s of six or more pitches. One other strange thing was that Saberhagen fell behind seven of the last eight hitters that he faced. The only hitter that he did not fall behind was Ozzie Guillen who appeared to have chased a ball outside.

Luck: 6/10

He was not particularly lucky. Ron Karkovice hit a line drive that just went foul in the third and also had a drive in the fifth that went into the bleachers but well foul. Saberhagen actually helped himself a lot with line drives and hard ground balls up the middle that he gobbled up. There was no particular great play and most balls were hit normally and right at the fielders. However, he had some bad luck when Gibson dropped that long fly by Pasqua in the fifth. He had some good luck when that play was ruled an error. This play was the subject of a Baseball Digest article in December 1991* in which author Allen Lewis called into question the legitimacy of this no-hitter. At first the scoreboard flashed a hit, but official scorer Del Black ruled it was a 2-base error. “I thought the ball was catchable. I didn’t make the call until I saw two angles on the replay. I thought he was there. He didn’t have to jump, just reach up. I thought it ticked his glove.” Lewis goes on to further claim (and I think it’s a good claim) that an official scorer should make judgments of this kind as if there were not a no-hitter at stake. However, I don’t agree with Lewis’ claim that the ball should necessarily have been ruled a hit. It could have gone either way, but it was probably ruled an error because of the no-hitter. White Sox announcers at the time thought it should have been caught.

Conditions: 8/10

The Royals scored seven quick runs off White Sox pitching so it was at least a good night to hit. Homeplate umpire Ted Hendry had a reasonable strike zone that honestly seemed bigger for Chicago pitching than it did for Saberhagen.

Competition: 5/10

The 1991 Chicago White Sox finished second in the AL West with a respectable 87-75 record. That year, they finished well above league average in runs score per game at 4.68. However, coming into the game they had lost 6 in a row and interestingly enough, they had lost 12 of 14 games since their own Wilson Alvarez threw a no-hitter against the Baltimore Orioles. This was obviously a good team going through a really bad spell and facing Bret Saberhagen was not what they needed. Saberhagen however did face some of the White Sox best hitters battling Hall of Famer Carlton Fisk and borderline Hall of Famers Frank Thomas and Tim Raines.

Final Score: 31/50

*Lewis, Allen. “Tainted no-hitters spoil major league history.” Baseball Digest Dec 1991: 60-61.