Staley Blanks Nashville
on Zero Hits

Harry Staley came into Tuesday's start with a 4.01 ERA and a 1–2 record, the kind of line that gets a pitcher skipped in the conversation about staff aces. He left with something nobody on this roster has ever done: nine innings, zero hits, and a place in the franchise record book that will be tough to match.

Staley's no-hitter wasn't a surgical masterpiece. He walked five batters, threw a wild pitch in the second inning, and needed 114 pitches to get through 27 outs. But the Nashville Sounds — a lineup featuring Frank Thomas, Bo Jackson, and Chili Davis — went to the plate 25 times without anything that resembled a base hit. Not a bloop. Not a broken-bat flare. Not even a close call on the scorecard. Line drives found gloves. Ground balls found fielders. The zeroes stacked up inning after inning.

Nine innings. Zero hits. 114 pitches. And a 4.01 ERA that says this was never supposed to happen.

The early innings were the loosest. Staley walked Thomas and Hart in the first, putting two aboard with two outs before getting Ken Phelps on a grounder to second. In the second, he walked Bill Freehan, then uncorked a wild pitch that moved Freehan to second with two down. Elvis Andrus popped out to end it. Those first two frames had all the markings of a five-walk, five-inning outing. They were the furthest thing from a no-hit bid.

Then Staley found it. The third inning was three up, three down — a lineout, a strikeout, another strikeout. The fourth was the same: grounder, grounder, flyout. By the fifth, the only baserunner was Chris Singleton on a walk, and Andrus immediately grounded into a double play — Alex Rodriguez to Ski Melillo to Mule Suttles — to erase any threat.

The sixth was perfection: Knoblauch to second, Thomas to the mound, Davis to left. Nine pitches, three outs, something building.

It was also the inning the Bandits finally scraped across the game's only run. Rodriguez walked, Suttles struck out, and Don Baylor grounded a single up the middle to push Rodriguez to third. Russell Martin lifted a sacrifice fly to center. It was enough. It had to be.

The seventh was three quick outs. The eighth was not. Freehan walked for the second time. Singleton laid down a sacrifice bunt — Freehan to second. Andrus grounded to short, and Freehan moved to third. One out from disaster, one swing from losing the no-hitter and the shutout on the same play. Chuck Knoblauch popped out to Bobby Brown at third. The ballpark exhaled.

The ninth was business. Defensive subs slotted in — Otto Miller behind the plate, Dane Iorg at first — a signal that the Bandits were locking down. Thomas grounded to second. Davis popped to third. Hart flied out to Jimmy Slagle in left.

No hits. Final.

Justin Thompson deserves a footnote. Nashville's starter went eight innings, allowed five hits and a single earned run, struck out five, and lost. His 2.44 ERA got no help from a lineup that went hitless. It was a pitcher's duel where only one pitcher's name will be remembered.

Staley's ERA after the gem: still 4.01. The kind of number that makes the no-hitter stranger, not less impressive. He didn't look like the guy who was going to do it. He just did it anyway.