Clearwater Threshers win despite getting no-hit

Spectrum Field, the Phillies Spring Training home, is home to the Clearwater Threshers. (Brian Michael/Phillies Nation)

Baseball fans have run this scenario through their minds a million times; can a team get no-hit and still win? Well for the Clearwater Threshers, the Phillies High-A team, that scenario became a reality Monday evening.

The Threshers were at the Tampa Bay Tarpons and it was a pitcher’s duel from the start. Phillies prospect McKenzie Mills spun a gem, going seven scoreless innings, allowing only three hits and one walk. Tampa’s starter Deivi Garcia was ridiculous, going seven innings allowing no runs, hits or walks. For good measure, Garcia also struck out 12. Tampa decided to go to the bullpen in the eighth inning, which proved to be a mistake.

I will say that the Threshers got lucky, this was supposed to be a seven inning game, but because it was tied at zero, they played the eighth. In Minor League Baseball, a runner starts the inning at second base in extra innings.

So with Luke Williams on second, Kevin Markham reached on a fielder’s choice, moving Williams to third. Two batters later, Daniel Brito hit a ground ball and Tampa tried to turn two, but Brito beat it out and Williams scored. Alberto Tirado shut the door with a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the eighth, and that’s how Clearwater won despite being no-hit on Monday.

According to Baseball Reference, this has happened five times in the Majors since 1919. The last came in 2008, when the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Los Angeles Angles 1-0 despite being no-hit. The oddest case was from 1990, when the Chicago White Sox somehow scored four runs on the New York Yankees without recording a hit.

At the end of the day, a win is a win. Clearwater is now 59-52.

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