It’s been almost 25 years to the day since the Boston Red Sox last were no-hit.
April 22, 1993, to be exact, was when the Seattle Mariners’ Chris Bosio accomplished the feat.
Heading into Saturday’s game with the Oakland Athletics, the Sox were leading Major League Baseball a number of categories, including runs (123), extra-base hits (85), doubles (56), slugging percentage (.497), OPS (.858), batting average (.293) and on-base percentage (.361).
The team had scored 36 runs over its previous four games, including a three-game sweep of the Los Angeles Angels, the second-best team in the league.
But Saturday night, A’s starting pitcher Sean Manaea silenced the offense that was leading the league with 201 hits on the season. And after the Sox’s 3-0 loss, they still had only 201 hits.
Manaea needed 108 pitches to get through nine innings. He racked up 10 strikeouts and had two walks, but the number that mattered was the “zero” in the hit column.
“My heart was beating out of my chest,” Manaea told Dallas Braden after the game, per MLB.com.
Here are some other notes from Red Sox-A’s:
— Chris Sale had a 23-pitch first inning and gave up an early run. He seemed to settle down after that, striking out 10 batters on the night. But despite the 10 K’s and getting through seven innings, it just wasn’t enough.
“We’re human,” Sale told reporters after the game. “We haven’t looked like it lately. But we’re human.”
— Oakland had not thrown a no-hitter since Mother’s Day 2010 when Braden tossed a perfect game.
— This was the 12th no-hitter in A’s history.
— Through Boston’s previous 19 games, the team was averaging 6.5 runs-per-game and had hit 26 home runs.
— There was some controversy in the top half of the sixth inning when Sox left fielder Andrew Benintendi initally was called safe at first when he was able to get his left hand on the bag before the tag.
The umpires gathered after the call to determine Benintendi ran outside of the baseline and was called out. After the game, he said it was “just a missed call.”
Had the call stood, that would have broken up Manaea’s no-hitter.
— After the game, Hanley Ramirez took to Twitter to congratulate Manaea for his no-hitter.
