Cole Hamels gave the Phillies’ front office perhaps the best gift they could have asked for by pitching a no-hitter in possibly his last start ever with the team. And he did it with the help of a teammate.
Hamels got two strikes on Chicago Cubs slugger Kris Bryant with two outs in the ninth at Wrigley Field on Saturday and let things slip away to a full count. Then he left a curveball up to the rookie, who promptly pounded the pitch to deep center field. Odubel Herrera went back to the warning track on the ball, but he misjudged it and actually had to dive forward to catch the ball at the last second to record the final out of the game.
Hamels’ game was a masterpiece. He walked just two over nine innings and struck out 13 in the Phillies’ 5-0 win.
This was the third no-hitter of the season and first time the Cubs had been no-hit since Sandy Koufax threw a perfect game against them in 1965. It also marks the fourth no-hitter caught by Carlos Ruiz, tying him with Jason Varitek for the most all-time.
Though we wouldn’t credit Herrera for making a great catch because he actually misplayed the ball, the way the out was recorded reminds us of DeWayne Wise’s catch to help Mark Buehrle’s perfect game effort in 2009.
