OnlyBucs

Last night the A's Mike Fiers no-hit the Reds. It was his 2nd no-hitter, having previously thrown one in 2015. CFer Laureano saved the no-hitter & the shutout by leaping high above the CF wall to rob Joey Votto of a HR in the 6th.



Talk about inconsistent! Fiers has now thrown 2 no-hitters but has had only 3 winning seasons in 9 years (career record 57-58) and has a so-so career ERA of 4.11. For the most part this year, his starts have either been outstanding or pathetic. The no-hitter managed to lower his ERA from 6.81 to 5.48.



His starts so far:

3 IP, 5 ER

6 IP, 0 ER

6 IP, 0 ER

1.2 IP, 6 ER

5 IP, 6 ER

3.1 IP, 6 ER

7 IP, 2 ER

5 IP, 3 ER

9 IP, 0 ER, 0 hits.



He also once pitched a perfect inning striking out the side on 9 pitches. Fiers has good control with a career BB/9 of 2.7. But he led MLB in wild pitches in 2016 and HBPs in 2017. In 2014 he had a fine BB/9 of just 2.1. But during that season he hit Stanton in the face and Stanton had to leave the game. But the ump ruled Stanton had swung so his AB continued. Reed Johnson had to PH to continue Stanton's AB and Fier's hit Johnson with the next pitch. Fiers is a hard guy to figure out.

Threw 130 pitches to get it done. He was at 90 in the 6th inning. It will be interesting to see how his next start goes. I know a lot of people lament the 100 pitch cap that most managers go by, but it's arguable that the Mets ruined Johna Santana's career by letting him finish a no-hitter throwing that many pitches. He was never the same after that game. Of course, the flip side of that argument is that Clayton Kershaw was around the same number of pitches in his no-no, and he's done OK since then. Maybe the lesson is that people aren't clones. What is too many pitches for one guy might not be too many for another. Regardless, I'm always happy to see the Reds lose and doubly happy to see them get no-hit.