FLUSHING, N.Y. — Part of baseball’s enduring appeal is ambiguity, the grey area where numbers and eras and circumstance blur, leaving statistics up for debate, rendering words like “the greatest” less definitive than they seem.
Was Max Scherzer’s no-hitter the greatest in baseball history? Maybe, but first field all the qualifiers: He threw it on a chilly, rainy day against a lineup missing most of its regulars in a game that didn’t matter. He did not have to face the Mets’ best hitters until the ninth, though one could argue that may have been the toughest time to face them, if one accounts for fatigue. He blew Yoenis Cespedes and Lucas Duda away. He was tested, and he passed.
The eye test supports the theory, too. As Scherzer charged through what was almost undoubtedly the greatest pitching season in Nationals history — a team record 276 strikeouts and a 2.79 ERA and league-leading strikeout-to-walk ratio of 8.12 in 228 innings — he carried a no-hitter through five innings six times. He carried a no-hitter through six innings four times. Three times, he was one out away from a perfect game. After all of those outings, he explained that no-hitters require luck. Most of those starts pivoted on key defensive plays, on hard-hit balls reigned in just in time — or bloops just out of reach that spoiled perfection.
Saturday, the Mets hardly tested his defense at all. Second baseman Dan Uggla smothered a hard groundball hit by Daniel Murphy in the sixth, and that was about the extent of it. He’d had to field a hard line drive earlier in the evening, but it was right at him, never really in doubt. That was about it. By the eye test, Scherzer’s no-hitter defined dominance.
Was it the greatest no-hitter ever thrown? Now, to the numbers:
Only one pitcher has struck out as many hitters in a no-hitter as Scherzer did — Nolan Ryan, in July of 1973. Ryan, you will remember from last night’s uproar, was the last pitcher to throw two no-hitters in one regular season.
Only one game in baseball history has earned a higher game score than Scherzer’s no-hitter: Kerry Wood’s 20-strikeout one-hitter in 1998. Game score is a Bill James creation aimed at measuring pitching dominance on a start-by-start basis. Pitchers begin each outing with 50 points, and walks, hits and runs subtract from the total. Strikeouts, outs and innings completed add to them. Wood’s gem earned a score of 105. Scherzer’s was 104.
Scherzer did not walk a batter Saturday. He did not walk one against the Pirates in June, either. In major league history, there have been 32 no-hitters thrown without a walk. Scherzer threw two of them this season. No one has struck out more hitters in those 32 games than Scherzer, whose 17 strikeouts are two more than the next highest total in a hit-free, walk-free showing. Since 1914, there have been 10 games thrown in which the pitcher allowed one base runner, no walks, and no hits. Scherzer threw two of them, including Saturday night’s. Since 1914, there have been 13 games thrown with a game score of 100 or higher. Of those 13 games, Baseball Reference has pitch counts for 10 of them. Only Clayton Kershaw threw fewer pitches to earn a complete-game game score of 100 or higher than Scherzer did Saturday.
Was Max Scherzer’s second no-hitter the greatest in baseball history? You can craft a compelling argument that it was, which in baseball, says it all.
