Another week in the MLB season has passed and there have been a number of excellent performances. However, the clear choice shall be awarded to the owner of the first no-hitter of the 2019 season, Oakland Athletics RHP Mike Fiers.
The Oakland Athletics RHP Mike Fiers hurled nine hitless innings when facing the Cinncinati Reds in the Oakland Coliseum on Tuesday night. Through those nine stellar innings, he tallied six strikeouts and only 2 walks. He had much assistance from his defenders, especially Ramon Laureano, who has been routinely spectacular while manning center field.
The sixth inning proved to be Fiers’ largest challenge of the entire night. With one out in the inning, Kyle Farmer lifted a weak pop-up to the no man’s land behind first base, in shallow right field. Seemingly no one would reach it until Jurickson Profar slid, fully extended and bailed his pitcher out.
The very next pitch that Fiers offered was a 73-mph curveball that sat too high in the zone. Joey Votto offered at the pitch and lifted a long fly ball to left center field, where Laureano was patrolling. He then leaped with full extension, taking a sure-fire home run away from the first baseman.
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Fiers was able to finish the game off relatively painlessly after that, using his 131st pitch to strikeout Eugenio Suarez and claim his second career no-hitter. While this outing was not dominant in terms of strikeouts, he was able to induce much weak contact and probably accomplished this goal because of it.
Mike Fiers is not a name one would anticipate has recorded multiple no-hitters, as the Oakland Athletics are his fourth team played for since 2011- the Detroit Tigers, Milwaukee Brewers, and Houston Astros are the other three.
Hyun-jin Ryu was another strong candidate for consideration this week, as he pitched two brilliant outings this week. On Sunday he posted 8 one-hit innings with 9 strikeouts in a 6-0 victory over the Nationals. This start was a follow up to a shut out in which he only surrendered 4 hits and recorded 6 strikeouts.
Despite this excellence, a no-hitter will always trump an outing in which a hit was surrendered, as a no-hitter has a specific place in baseball lore.