Matt Moore Loses A No-Hitter With Two Outs In The Ninth
All I can say is Matt Moore handled that WAY better than I ever could have. In my shitbum baseball days, I threw one no-hitter, and I had a game where I gave up a home run to the first batter of the game, and threw a no-hitter the rest of the way. If I were ever in a situation where I lost a no-no late in the game, more specifically with one out to go, I would never be able to laugh it off like some of these guys do who come that close. I’d probably lose my mind, and start questioning my belief in the universe and the meaning of life.
Also, I’m curious — where do you guys stand on rooting for the no-hitter if it’s the opposing team who’s throwing it? I’ve only ever been to one of these games, and it was an extreme case that shouldn’t even be considered for this scenario. I was at Mike Mussina’s near perfect game in which he came within one strike, before Carl Everett broke it up with a base hit to left center. The Red Sox were dog shit that year, so a win didn’t mean anything as far as the standings go, but it was Red Sox/Yankees in 2001, so every game between those two teams back then was Game 7 of the World Series. That, and it was only a 1-0 game in the bottom of the ninth, so every Red Sox fan preferred spoiling a perfect game with two outs and two strikes and a walk-off win against the Yankees over seeing history. Understandable.
But last night? It was 4-0 Giants with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. Were the odds of winning the game at that point so minuscule that Dodgers fans were kinda rooting for the no-hitter? With those two teams, I highly doubt it. Not only are they also rivals, but this series meant a ton in the standings. The Giants came into this three-game set a game back of LA, before losing the first two games to fall to three games back. If the Dodgers pulled off the highly improbable comeback in the ninth, that would’ve been their biggest division lead of the entire season.
I guess the better example would be something like this — if you’re a Cubs fan, would you be rooting for somebody like Jose Fernandez to complete a no-hitter once he gets into the ninth with one? The Cubs are doing cartwheels to the finish line, so one loss wouldn’t mean anything, and there’s literally no shame in being no-hit by Fernandez. I gotta figure Cubs fans would be rooting to see a no-no in that situation.
Either way, you’ve gotta tip your cap to Moore here. He hadn’t exactly been setting the world on fire since being acquired by the Giants at the trade deadline from the Tampa Bay Rays, coming into last night with a 4.70 ERA in his first four starts with San Francisco. If any contending team in baseball needed a shot in the arm, it was the Giants. It’s been a tale of two seasons for those guys, who had the best record in the MLB on July 10 (57-33), and have since had the worst record in the MLB (12-25) to go from 6.5 games up to 2 games out.
Moore had his no-hitter broken up with two outs in the bottom of the ninth by Corey Seager (on Corey Seager bobblehead night, no less), and although he didn’t throw the 296th no-hitter in MLB history, he was the reason the Giants left LA two games back instead of four. And with six weeks to go, that’s huge.