Athletics' Manaea baffles Red Sox for 1st no-hitter of 2018
Sean Manaea managed to tame the best offense in baseball on Saturday night.
The Oakland Athletics left-hander threw the first no-hitter in the 2018 season by dominating the Boston Red Sox and outdueling fellow southpaw Chris Sale in the process in the 3-0 victory.
He struck out 10 Red Sox batters on 108 pitches. The only blemishes came on a pair of walks and when Sandy Leon reached base on an error in the fifth.
"Honestly, it still doesn't feel real," Manaea told MLB.com's Jane Lee. "Even after the last out, I couldn't imagine throwing a no-hitter in the big leagues, especially against a team like the Red Sox. It's incredible. I don't even know what to say."
The no-hitter is the first by an Athletics pitcher since Dallas Braden thew a perfect game against the Tampa Bay Rays on May 9, 2010. It's the seventh no-hitter for the franchise since moving to Oakland. Catfish Hunter threw the first nearly 50 years ago on May 8, 1968.
The 26-year-old nearly lost his no-no with two outs in the sixth when Andrew Benintendi appeared to dodge Matt Olson's tag at first. Umpires ruled that Benintendi stepped out of the baseline, and the inning ended with the no-hitter still intact.
After two quick outs to kick off the ninth inning, Manaea issued his second walk of the game. He retired Hanley Ramirez on a ground ball to shortstop Marcus Semien to seal the deal.
Turn the sound up, and enjoy.#RootedInOakland pic.twitter.com/3Mw5nSRFTp
— Oakland Athletics 🌳🐘⚾️ (@Athletics) April 22, 2018
The electric performance moves Manaea to 3-2 on the season with a 1.23 ERA through five starts.
Apparently, there was some confusion after Semien committed an error on a fifth-inning pop up. Manaea thought it was a hit.
Manaea thought the Semien error was a hit, so he didn’t know he had a no-hitter going until the eighth. pic.twitter.com/PRXXV5IMwL
— Jane Lee (@JaneMLB) April 22, 2018
The Red Sox entered the game with the most potent lineup in the game, leading all teams with 123 runs scored through their first 19 games. The loss snapped the team's second eight-game winning streak of the campaign. It's the first time the Red Sox have been on the losing end of a no-hitter since April 22, 1993.
"When you have a no-hitter, it's special, regardless, but probably a little bit more based on the fact that these guys don't lose and have been swinging the bat so well," A's manager Bob Melvin told Lee. "You look up and down the lineup and it seems like everybody is hitting over .330."