Last night at Dodger Stadium, there was a no hitter that really wasn't one. Despite the dominance of Jared Weaver and Jose Arrondondo in holding the Dodgers hitless over eight innings, the Dodgers escaped with a 1-0 victory thanks to Matt Kemp's speed, some shoddy Angel defense, excellent defense by Andre Ethier and top-level pitching by Chad Billingsley, Jonathan Broxton and Takashi Saito.
18 years ago today on a Friday night at Dodger Stadium there was a real no-hitter, one spun by perhaps the most beloved player in Los Angeles Dodger history. On that warm evening, Fernando Valenzuela joined the exclusive Dodgers no-hit club by holding the St. Louis Cardinals hitless in a 6-0 Dodgers win.
Valenzuela retired 19 of the first 20 batters he faced on the game, with the only Cardinal player reaching base on a dropped fly ball by Dodger leftfielder Kirk Gibson. The only real difficulty Valenzuela faced came in the seventh inning when he issued one out walks to Pedro Guerrero and Todd Zeile. The no-hitter, not to mention the Dodgers' 3-0 lead, looked in jeopardy with Terry Pendelton at the plate. Pendelton hit the ball well, but flew out to deep left for the second out and Valenzuela retired Jose Oquendo on a groundout to end the inning.
Of course, Valenzuela didn't win the game on his own. He received plenty of support at the plate from Lenny Harris (three hits, three runs in the leadoff spot), Hubie Brooks and Juan Samuel (who each homered).
The game ended with a play fitting of the one time Gold Glove award winning fielder, as Guerrero's grounder to the mound was deflected by Valenezuela and turned into a 1-4-3 double play. The 29th and final shutout of Valenzuela's career was a fitting last great moment for a pitcher who made most of the 1980's magical for the Dodgers and their fans.
Ariel Meredith
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And someday, we'll talk about Harvey Haddix's "perfect" loss 50 years ago...
DC Sports Nut: Nats,…
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Wow, that sure takes me back. I remember when Valenzuela threw that no-hitter. I was still upset about the Dodgers not getting a hit lst night, despite the win, hopefully that game tells them something about their offense.
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