A historical game started with Matt Manning — the No. 9 overall pick in the 2016 draft — in Saturday’s 2-0 win over the Toronto Blue Jays.
There have been 320 no-hitters in MLB history.
Three hundred of them were accomplished by a single pitcher. Twenty of them, the most recent being the Detroit Tigers, were accomplished by at least two pitchers.
A historic game started with right-hander Matt Manning — the No. 9 overall pick in the 2016 draft — in Saturday’s 2-0 win over the Toronto Blue Jays at Comerica Park, with 30,621 fans in the stands. It was his third start since returning from the injured list after missing 11 weeks due to a right foot fracture.
WATCH: Tigers‘ TV and radio calls of historic no-hitter vs. Toronto Blue Jays
„Honestly, I swear I had no idea,“ said Manning, who completed 6⅔ innings without allowing a hit. „After I had a scuffle in the first (inning), I was just trying to eat up innings. We had a two-run lead, so I was trying to protect that lead.“
The day started off with frustration for Manning. There was an 82-minute delay because of inclement weather, but when the 25-year-old took the mound, he was forced to pitch through steady rainfall.
He asked for a new baseball after every other pitch.
He slipped a couple of times.
He wiped his hands with a towel as part of a brief on-field delay.
The playing conditions were miserable.
„I don’t think he could feel the ball,“ Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. „Even the umpire ran out and handed him one to try to avoid throwing it in the rain. We knew the rain was going to lift, but we didn’t know exactly how it was going to hit us. … And then the skies lifted, the sun came out and it got more and more interesting as the game went on.“
That’s because Manning kept the game interesting, historically speaking. He stranded Bo Bichette (hit-by-pitch) and Brandon Belt (walk) with three outs in a row against Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Matt Chapman and Cavan Biggio.
Biggio struck out looking at a down-and-in 93.5 mph fastball.
THE GAME: Matt Manning, Jason Foley and Alex Lange combine for Tigers‘ ninth no-hitter
The rain passed by the start of the second inning. At that point, Manning — armed with a 2-0 lead from the Tigers‘ Riley Greene-led offense — began landing his slider and curveball for strikes inside the strike zone to complement his elite fastball.
„When Matty was shaking a little bit, obviously, he had a better feel for his breaking ball right away,“ said catcher Eric Haase, also behind the plate for Spencer Turnbull’s no-hitter in May 2021.
