2022: The Year Of The Failed No-Hitter

We’re not even halfway through the 2022 MLB Season and we’ve already seen two no-hitters (well, according to Noah Syndergaard, we’ve only seen one). A conglomerate of five Mets pitchers recorded the first on April 29th, 2022, and Angels pitcher Reid Detmers recorded the first solo no-hitter of the season on May 10th. While tossing a no-no is impressive regardless of how many pitchers are involved, that’s not what this story is about. What I am here to discuss is all those pitchers who fell just short of immortality–which seems to be happening more often than ever before.      

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On June 14th, Cardinals pitcher Miles Mikolas was one strike away from etching his name into the history books. Literally–he had the final out of the game down to a 2-2 count.

One strike away from glory.

But a fly ball over the head of Cardinals centerfielder Harrison Bader spoiled all the fun, and Mikolas’ no-hitter was no more.

Just two days later, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Tyler Anderson had a no-hitter going into the ninth inning as well. He was even able to record the first out of the ninth, only to have it all broken up by a Shohei Ohtani triple.

It seems like every week we have a new no-hit bid broken up in the late innings. Or, in Cinnicainati Reds pitcher Hunter Greene’s case, your no-hitter only goes 8 innings, and your team loses the game. That’s right, Hunter Greene tossed 8 innings of no-hit baseball, but thanks to a slew of walks and errors in one bad inning, the Pirates managed to go up 1-0. The reds were unable to score for the remainder of the game, so Hunter Greene joins the short list of unofficial 8-inning no-hitter losses. What a list.

So far, there have already been 12 no-hit bids go into the eighth inning, and it hasn’t even been half of the season. In the entire 2021 season, 17 no-hit bids made it past the seventh.

I’m not sure if this is anything more than a fluke–remember, the most common fish you can catch in the ocean is a fluke. But in a time where the MLB seems to be changing the ball more than George Steinbrenner changed managers, it really makes you wonder what the MLB is up to.