By Yours Truly
https://throneberryfields.blogspot.com/2018/04/mano-no.htmlThe way the Red Sox broke out of the chute to open the season, you might have thought the chances of beating them with a no-hitter were two:
slim, and none. Especially if you had thoughts that a) it had been a full quarter century since the last time the Red Sox were no-hit; and, b) it could
be done against Chris Sale, arguably the best starting pitcher in the game this season thus far.
Someone didn't trouble to tell either Sean Manaea of the Athletics. But there he was, out-pitching Sale and beating the team with baseball's best
record through this writing, the first time the Red Sox were no-hit since the Mariners' Chris Bosio brought it off in 1993. The final score was 3-0,
with Hanley Ramirez grounding out to finish the jewel.
For the A's, it's probably a good thing they didn't. It's probably also a good thing nobody told their lefthander that only two previous pitchers had
ever thrown no-hitters at the Red Sox with ten or more strikeouts while they were at it, and both are in the Hall of Fame: Walter Johnson, who
struck out ten doing it in 1920; and, Jim Bunning, striking out twelve doing it in 1958.
It may also be a good thing that nobody told Manaea only two Athletics pitchers have ever struck out more than he did Saturday in throwing no-
hitters. Dave Stewart struck out twelve on 29 June 1990, and Hall of Famer Catfish Hunter struck out eleven on 8 May 1968.
Manaea's no-hitter was the first for an A's pitcher since ill-fated Dallas Braden's perfect game on Mother's Day against the Rays in 2010. It pulled
the A's to within a game of .500 in an American League West where the stories otherwise are the defending world champion Astros playing like
defending world champions with the Los Angeles Angels a half game from having their teeth on the Astros' heels.
Twice along the way Manaea thought his gem in the making was turned back to coal. Once was in the fifth, when his shortstop Marcus Semien
ambled out to shallow center field aiming for an over-the-shoulder, wide receiver-like catch on Red Sox catcher Sandy Leon's popup. The ball
landed in his glove and bounded out of it almost in the same instant. It took another inning or so before Manaea realised it was ruled an error.
Semien ambled out as center fielder Mark Canha ran in toward the ball. "I was running back," Semien said after the game, "and I heard Canha
was yelling, 'Marcus, Marcus,' and I thought he said, 'I got it.' But I still think I should've caught the ball. Usually I don't want to make errors,
but in that situation you take the error."
An inning later came what the Red Sox might still think the key play. Andrew Benintendi grounded one to the first base side and tried eluding
Oakland first baseman Matt Olson's tag. At first Benintendi was ruled safe. But the umpires conferred and nailed the right call: Benintendi had
stepped just enough past the proper baseline, his foot hitting the foul territory grass, and they ruled him out.
Benintendi demurred. "It's just a missed call," he said flatly after the game. "I think if we have ten hits at that point, that's a single. But the
situation the game was in, they might have been searching for something and they found it." You can search all you want, in every replay of
that play, and you'll still find Benintendi's foot hitting the foul grass.
Umpire crew chief Brian Gorman would agree with you. "When a fielder fields a ball and he attempts to tag a runner," Gorman said after the
game, "the runner can go forward to the base or back to the base, but can't go side to side. He has three feet either way. So if he goes more
than three feet avoiding the tag, he's declared out for being out of his baseline."
Manaea got rid of fourteen consecutive Red Sox after he walked Mookie Betts to start the game. Betts himself almost ruined it in the ninth
when he hit one to the right field track that Stephen Piscotty ran down for a catch. Benintendi drew a two-out walk, before Ramirez cued one
easily enough to Semien that the shortstop could end the game forcing Benintendi at second.
It was a sweet moment in the sweet spot of time for a pitcher who became an Athletic in the first place when the Royals, en route their
eventual World Series triumph, traded him for utilityman Ben Zobrist in July 2015.
"I've caught a lot of great pitchers in this game," said his catcher, Jonathan Lucroy, who's caught the like of Zack Greinke and Hall of Famer
Trevor Hoffman during his career. "I have eight years in. And that was the most well-pitched, well-executed game I've ever had behind the
plate. I mean, [the Red Sox] were all messed over there. They had no idea."
Only one team has gone longer than the Red Sox went without being no-hit before Manaea pinned them: the A's themselves. Manaea also
broke an eight-game Red Sox winning streak, the second-longest such streak to be ended with a no-hitter. The longest? Hark back to
prehistoric days, when Larry Corcoran of the Chicago White Stockings (the future Cubs) broke the Providence Grays' ten-game winning
streak with a no-no in 1884.
Manaea and Sale each struck out ten hitters. That was the only equivalence between them Saturday. The A's struck early when Jed Lowrie
doubled home Semien in the first, then Semien scored their second run two innings later when Piscotty doubled him home, before Semien
decided it was time he helped his own sweet self home in the fifth with a shot over the left center field fence.
You felt sorry for Sale even knowing the other guy was pinning your team back with a no-hitter. He has a 1.86 earned run average and a
0.96 walks/hits per inning pitched rate, not to mention 41 strikeouts in 29 innings pitched and a 1.84 fielding-independent pitching rate.
Some speak of his lack of run support, and he has worked a few games in which he could have taken his mates to court for non-support. His
season's average run support is 4.79, but that's deceptive---he's only had two of five starts so far in which he had more than one run to work
with, and one of them was that 14-1 blowout of the Yankees.
None of which mattered Saturday. The not-so-hard-throwing Manaea, who's overcome shoulder issues, and who has a solid changeup and a
see-you-later slider, found ways to manhandle a team that led the American League in runs, team batting average, team on-base and slugging
percentages, and OPS, while being third in the league in dialing long distance.
He'd been good if not necessarily spectacular in his career until Saturday. For at least one day he was embraced by greatness. Nobody can take
that away.
Manaea was wholly entitled
to stand for an interview with Dallas Braden himself, now working for NBC Sports California, with a Dubble Bubble
bucket plopped on his head after a shaving cream and Gatorade shower to crown his jewel. It gives Manaea another precedent, we think---the
first pitcher to throw a no-hitter
and stand for a postgame interview with the last man to throw one for his team.
Braden probably hopes Manaea's career doesn't end up the way his did, with a shredded left shoulder after only five major league seasons.
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