A Baseball Reference search brings up 171 no-hitters of exactly nine innings since 1919. Liriano’s 1-0 shutout of the White Sox on Tuesday night doesn’t match up with most of them.
– Liriano tied Lefty Chambers for the lowest game score of the 171 outings. Since there are no hits and usually no runs associated with a no-hitter, the base game score for a nine-inning no-no is 87. After that, just add the strikeouts and subtract the walks. Nolan Ryan (16 K, 2 BB) and Sandy Koufax (14 K, 0 BB) had the highest game scores in nine-inning no-hitters at 101. Liriano (2 K, 6 BB) and Chambers (4 K, 8 BB) came in at 83.
– Liriano is the only pitcher in the whole 171 to get three double-play balls in his no-hitter. Jose Jimenez in 1999 was the last two get two double plays.
– His two strikeouts were the fewest in a no-hitter since Jerry Reuss fanned two on June 27, 1980. In fact, one had to go all of the way back to Dwight Gooden’s no-hitter in 1996 to find someone with as few as five strikeouts.
– Because of the walks and double plays, White Sox hitters were a mere 0-for-24 against Liriano. The last no-hitter with just 24 official at-bats was Joe Cowley’s for the White Sox against the Angels on Sept. 19, 1986.
