Ranking The Five Seattle Mariners No-Hitters
Aug 12, 2015; Seattle, WA, USA; Seattle Mariners pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma (18) reacts to the final out of his no-hit, 3-0 victory against the Baltimore Orioles at Safeco Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports
The Seattle Mariners found themselves in a rather unexpected position yesterday – they were all over the national news, despite the fact that it’s August. Hardly a time when the M’s are supposed to be relevant, yet here we are, basking in the afterglow of the no-hitter thrown yesterday by Hisashi Iwakuma against the Baltimore Orioles at Safeco Field. All the way up in the Northwestern corner of the country, the Mariners couldn’t be overlooked. For a day, at least.
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What Iwakuma did yesterday was brilliant and historic – he joins a finite list of major leaguers who’ve thrown a no-hitter, and became only the second Japanese-born MLBer to accomplish the feat after Hideo Nomo (who did it twice). He’s the oldest pitcher to throw a no-no since Randy Johnson. It was a great game with a very real place in baseball history.
Iwakuma was the fifth Mariners pitcher to throw a no-hitter – actually, no, he was the tenth, but that’s because of 2012’s six-pitcher combined no-no. The combined no-hitter was the third-most recent in the American League – followed by Felix Hernandez‘s perfect game and then Iwakuma’s gem yesterday. Ever since Kevin Millwood and the bullpen held the Dodgers hitless, no other AL team has thrown a no-hitter. Seattle has three.
A no-hitter is the kind of thing you don’t really ever have to stop celebrating, and so today we’ll keep the festivities going. The Seattle Mariners have had three no-hitters since 2012, but there were two more before that. The question is: who did it best? What follows are the five no-hitters in Mariners history, ranked from least to most impressive. Disagree with the order? Sound off in the comments!
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