My No-Hitter.

I attended yesterday’s Brewer/Cardinal pitchers duel, and actually managed to see the functional equivalent of a no-hitter as Yovanni Gallardo and Chris Carpenter combined to record 27 outs without allowing a hit through 4.5 innings. It doesn’t count, but it’s still a rare feat.

Carpenter was truly outstanding. By the time Gallardo had thrown his 100th pitch, Carpenter was only at his 60th, and this was not due to careless hacking by the Brewers. Carpenter lived in the strike zone all day, and still, no one could touch him. It was an outstanding performance and I thought I had a real chance to see a perfect game until Counsell managed a seeing-eye single (and was promptly thrown out stealing as part of a botched hit-and-run).

Bill Hall was the unlikely hero, splitting the gap with an opposite field hit in the 10th. We should give credit where credit is due. Hall has been struggling mightily against righties and has just experienced a terrible road trip. He had a good approach in that at-bat and wisely went the other way in a situation where only a single was necessary.

At 2 hours and 26 minutes, this was by far the shortest extra-inning game I’ve ever seen. The crew did a good job to steal this one and to reclaim their division lead. Meanwhile, in Chicago, the Cubs lost their 8th consecutive game.