Fenway Park, Section 37, Row 22. May 19, 2008.
Not ideal seats for a cold and windy night game with the wind whipping off the Charles and circling through the bleachers. Sitting approximately 400 feet from the pitchers mound, I witnessed what I figured I'd never see in my entire life - a no hitter.
Last year Spencer and I almost saw a no hitter by Felix Hernandex at Diasuke's Fenway debut. Felix (also on my fantasy team that year) pitched beautifully through 7 before giving up a single to JD Drew with none out in the bottom of the eighth. Even though the game wasn't going the Red Sox way, you couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed that the no-no was no more.
Flash forward 13 months later.
It was immediately clear from the start of the game that Lester was on tonight. He was taking batters deep into counts, but was not giving in. He made good pitches with 2 and 3 ball counts and kept the Royals from making any decent contact. The only well hit ball came in the 4th inning - a liner caught on the dive by Jacoby. There was another ball hit sharply, but directly at Youk. After the end of the 5th inning, the thought of the no hitter began creeping in. At the end of the 6th, a time when many people leave the stands on a cold night with a comfortable lead, the bleachers were still completely packed. The scoreboard was just there starring at you
KC 0 0 1
... could this be it?
Top of the 9th, Lester comes to the mound to pitch - 113 pitches in at this point - is received by a standing ovation, flash bulbs popping off, impossible to not feel like this is my one and only shot at seeing this happen. I felt good going into the inning. Esteban German and Tony Pena were due up - both Mendoza line hitters. Of course, Lester probably has his worst sequence of pitches of the night and walks German on 5 pitches. I'm thinking at this point if he walks another and his pitch count approaches the 130+ mark, is he going to get pulled? That would have been tragic, but how much can you really push it when the Sox are already thin at SP?
Lester of course gets out of the inning on his 130th pitch and Fenway goes nuts. Everyone jumping up and down as if we just won the pennant. Outside on Lansdowne, the celebration continues. Just an incredible scene.
It probably just an anomaly, but out of the last 6 no-hitters in the American League, 4 have been from Red Sox pitchers and 3 of those were at Fenway. Strange.
3 comments:
Great article by Joe Posnanski, writer for the Kansas City Star and an excellent blogger. I only found out about him b/c I have Brian Bannister in a mixed league I am in and was looking for past articles. He definitely makes my short list of baseball blogs I would recommend.
http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2008/05/20/fenway-and-no-hitters/
I still can't believe you were at that game. I'm glad that Lester will get an extra day of rest too; 130 is starting to get up into scary pitch count numbers.
I'm excited to see the Sox this weekend in Oakland. Hopefully they'll keep playing well. It looks like the rotation is a bit jumbled right now - with Matsuzaka the Thursday before the series starts, Wake Friday, Beckett Saturday, and then either Masterson or Colon on Sunday (although Colon would be on short rest).
very, very jealous.
I've missed maybe a half dozen sox games this year. Studying more than I have in my life has given me the opportunity to always be near my computer. However, last night I turned the game off in the 6th inning with no concept of the lack of hits, and watched reruns of Lost all night instead. Kicking myself today.
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