The First "No-no" of the Year!

Pitching a no-hitter in the Major Leagues is something that pitchers only dream of.  Unless you're Nolan Ryan, who tossed seven of them in his long career, chances are you're probably not going to ever throw one during your time in the Majors.  Last night, however, previously-struggling Francisco Liriano of the Minnesota Twins pitched the first no-hitter of the season, beating the White Sox 1-0 (I know; the guy tosses a no-hitter and the best his team could do was score only one run!).  I was able to catch the last out, whose victim was former Nationals first baseban-turned DH Adam Dunn.  While I like Dunn and would normally hope he gets a hit, I was really rooting for Liriano.  I loved watching the hugs, the high-fives, and the celebration that took place on the mound after Dunn hit an easy-to-field grounder.  It is moments like that one that make baseball so much fun to watch.  But let's remember that part of the credit for the no-hitter goes to Twins' catcher Drew Butera, who called the pitches and kept Liriano calm throughout the latter innings as he was starting to run out of steam.  (Baseball nerd fact of the day:  My man Iván Rodriguez has caught two no-hitters in his career; one for Kenny Rogers with the Rangers and one for Justin Verlander with the Tigers.  I may have mentioned this in a previous post, but it's one of those facts that I'm proud of knowing without having to look it up!  I won't bring it up again - I promise!).

Things weren't so rosy for our local teams last night, with the Nationals losing to the Phillies 4-1 (and who didn't see THAT happening?) and the Orioles losing to the Royals 6-5 in 10 innings.  The Tigers finally beat the Yankees 4-2 (Jeter added one more hit to his grand total); the Mets lost again (this time to the Giants, 7-6 in 10 innings); Cleveland won AGAIN beating Oakland 4-1; and Andre Ethier's consecutive-game hitting streak is now at 29 games (though the Dodgers lost to the Cubs 4-1). 

So it was an exciting night of baseball last night, with the same teams matching up tonight.  And for you hockey fans, let's hope the Capitals can win at least one game in their playoff series against the Tampa Bay Lightning!  While I can't watch hockey on TV for too long because it's hard to follow that little puck, I will be tuning in tonight during baseball's commercials.