Six Mariners Combine For Unlikely No-Hitter

No-Hitters are becoming more common... in fact, there have already been four no-hitters thrown this year.  If you're curious, the most no-hitters before the all-star break is 5, which happened in 1990.  There have only been three instances in baseball history where there have been four no-hitters thrown before the all-star break; 2012, 2010 and 1990.  The fact that two of those seasons have come within the past few years should be evidence that another age of the pitcher is upon us.

Depsite the increased frequency of the no-hitter, last night's no-hitter was special.  In all of baseball history, there have only been ten combined no-hitters (where the starting pitcher did not finish the game) and the record for most pitchers used in a regulation no-hit game is six pitchers (which has been done twice; 2003 by Roy Oswalt, Pete Munro, Kirk Saarloos, Brad Lidge, Octavio Dotel and Billy Wagner of the Houston Asros and last night by Kevin Millwood, Charlie Furbush, Stephen Pryor, Lucas Luetge, Brandon League and Tom Wilhelmsen of the Seattle Mariners).  The Seattle Mariners accomplished both feats last night.  Kevin Millwood was unable finish the game due to a groin strain so he had to surrender the game over to his relief crew.  Much to the chegrin of the first-place LA Dodgers, the Mariners relievers held up their end of the bargain, pitching three innings of no-hit baseball en route to the 276th no-hitter in baseball history.  Surprisingly, Kevin Millwood now finds himself among the elite-elite in baseball lore that can stake claim to being involved in more than one no-hitter.  He's also one of three pitchers in baseball history that can say that they started/threw a complete game no-hitter and a combined no-hitter (Vida Blue and Kent Mercker, the others).