2021 No. 6 ranked no-hitter: Spencer Turnbull vs. the Seattle Mariners
Game score is a great way of comparing relative pitching performances, but we’ll be on our own for the first batch of no-hitters. That’s because Wade Miley, Carlos Rodon, and Spencer Turnbull each finished with a game score of 95.
This exercise is going to be harder than it looked on Slack.
Unfortunately, someone has to be last. Aesthetically, Spencer Turnbull’s no-hitter checks in just a little worse than the others.
But hey — the sixth-best no-hitter is still a no-hitter. You can’t be too upset about being ranked sixth on a list of the best no-hitters.
The extenuating circumstances resulting in this ranking:
- The Mariners are exceptionally awful at hitting a baseball successfully.
- They were a little better at taking a walk.
Though Turnbull threw nine strikeouts — more than either Rodon or Miley, he walked two. That’s also more than Rodon or Miley.
In an activity as finely calibrated as ranking no-hitters, whatchagonnado? Everything’s gotta count.
Speaking of counting, Turnbull also needed the most pitches to record a no-hitter this year at 117.
He almost certainly would have ended up a little higher in the rankings had he not walked a batter to lead off the ninth.