Anibal Sanchez hands his no-hitter over to the Tigers’ bullpen in the seventh

By Bill BaerOct 12, 2013, 10:57 PM EDT
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Tigers starter Anibal Sanchez no-hit the Red Sox through six innings in ALCS Game 1, but he will not be allowed to complete it. Sanchez threw 116 pitches, prompting Tigers manager Jim Leyland to lift him from the game with the larger goal in mind. Reliever Al Alburquerque will be the first out of the bullpen tasked with preserving the no-hitter. He is slated to face Mike Carp (pinch-hitting for Will Middlebrooks), Jarrod Saltalamacchia (pinch-hitting for David Ross), and Jacoby Ellsbury.

Sanchez’s final line reads: 6 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 6 BB, 12 K.

The Tigers chased Red Sox starter Jon Lester with one out in the seventh. Lester hit Jose Iglesias with a pitch, then gave way to reliever Junichi Tazawa, who recorded two outs to send the game to the bottom of the seventh with his team down 1-0.

No, the Astros aren’t being targeted for HBPs in spring training

Alex Bregman
Mark Cunningham/MLB Photos via Getty Images
By Bill BaerFeb 27, 2020, 4:05 PM EST
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On Wednesday, Astros third baseman Alex Bregman was hit by Cardinals pitcher Ramon Santos. It marked the seventh time an Astros batter had been hit in spring training exhibition games thus far, the highest total among all teams. As expected, teams are exacting revenge for the Astros’ cheating ways!

Well, not quite. The pitch Santos hit Bregman with was a 3-2 breaking ball that got away. Usually, if a pitcher is going to hit a batter as an act of revenge, he’ll attempt to do it with a first-pitch fastball.

José Altuve was also hit by a pitch against the Tigers on Sunday. The pitch, which looks to be the off-speed variety, appeared to graze his uniform as opposed to hitting him flush, so it was likely unintentional on the part of pitcher Nick Ramirez.

Other Astros to have been hit in spring training thus far: Alex De Goti, Aledmys Díaz, Osvaldo Duarte, Dustin Garneau, and Jake Meyers. Not exactly a who’s-who list of Code Breaker operatives.

Will some pitchers intentionally throw at the Astros this year? Almost certainly, despite commissioner Rob Manfred’s warning. Have they been doing it from the moment exhibition games began earlier this month? Certainly not.