Madison Bumgarner's seven-inning no-hitter may never be officially acknowledged, but the Arizona Diamondbacks don't seem to care.
The team celebrated the veteran left-hander's feat accomplished during the second game of Sunday's doubleheader against the Atlanta Braves as though it was a normal, nine-inning no-no.
Bumgarner's teammates mobbed him on the diamond after the final out, and the jubilation continued inside the clubhouse.
"Seven innings, nine innings ... it's a no-hitter," manager Torey Lovullo said after his club's 7-0 win, according to Mark McClune of CBS 5 Arizona. "I'll remember this day the rest of my life."
"I don't know what the rule book is going to say," he added. "What's going on in that room today, it was a no-hitter."
MLB only officially recognizes no-hitters thrown in nine-inning games, or in normal-length contests completed in extra innings. The league's statistical accuracy committee under then-commissioner Fay Vincent made that stance official in 1991, resulting in several shortened no-hitters - plus others broken up in extras - being stricken from the record books.
Bumgarner's shortened no-no isn't the result of a rainout like others on that list. Due to the pandemic, MLB and the players' association agreed to shorten all doubleheader games over the last two seasons to seven innings.
MLB and the Elias Sports Bureau clarified last summer that Vincent's nine-inning rule will apply for all scheduled seven-inning games, unless one is taken into the ninth through extra innings. The league confirmed to Tyler Kepner of the New York Times that Bumgarner's performance won't officially count as a no-hitter, and it will instead be classified with other shortened no-hitters as a "notable achievement."
"I didn't give up any hits today," the 31-year-old said when asked about the official ruling, according to Kepner. "I'm not in control of how many innings we're playing. I like the seven-inning doubleheader thing. I don't know."
Regardless of how it will be referred to officially, Bumgarner was cherishing his achievement. The start was his first complete-game shutout since 2016, and it was easily his best outing during what's been a disappointing tenure in Arizona.
"It feels good," Bumgarner said, according to Steve Gilbert of MLB.com. "I mean, that was obviously a rough - very rough stretch - and I've been through a lot of rough stretches. It's just part of it. I was waiting on it to turn around."
"I'm pretty proud of it," he added.
