Last night Francisco Liriano of the Minnesota Twins threw the first no-hitter of 2011 campaign, and it came against Division Rival – the Chicago White Sox. The Twins took the victory 1-0. A no-hitter is always impressive…but in this case, maybe they should throw an asterisk up on it. Over the course of nine innings, Liriano gave up 6 walks and only struck out 2. Of the 123 pitches he threw, only 66 of them were strikes, or 54%.
This is not the dominating performance that one expects to come with a no hitter. A no-hitter is supposed to be an impressive display of a pitchers prowess, mowing down batter after batter. Instead last night Liriano got extremely lucky with at ’em ball after at ’em ball. The Minnesota defense picked him up huge, which sounds so odd after the no-hitter.
It will go down in the record books as a no-hitter, and Liriano should be congratulated for it, but it was not pretty. Liriano and Edwin Jackson can have a battle over the ugliest no-hitter of all time…
Grizzly Bomb 