SteemSports Presenter:
SteemSports Editor:
History was made at the Oakland Coliseum on Saturday night as 26-year-old left-hander Sean Manaea twirled the first no-hitter of the 2018 MLB season. What makes it even more impressive, is that he did so against the surging Boston Red Sox who entered play on Saturday with baseball’s best record at 17-2 and had been winners of eight consecutive games.
Manaea matched his career high with 10 strikeouts in the contest, allowing just a pair of walks along the way.
Manaea thought that he had lost his no-hit bid in the fifth inning, when Sandy Leon hit a soft flare into center field that shortstop Marcus Semien was just barely able to get a glove on. In a somewhat controversial call, the official scorer ruled it an error, keeping the no-hitter alive.
It was in jeopardy again in the sixth inning, when Andrew Benintendi seemingly broke up the bid with an infield single. The umpires convened however and ruled that Benintendi had left the basepath in an attempt to avoid the tag of first baseman Matt Olson and was ruled out.
In fact, it wasn’t until the eighth inning that Manaea even realized that he had a shot at the historic accomplishment. He told reporters afterwards, "I looked and saw that there was still a zero and I was like, whoa, weird… coming out for the ninth, my heart was beating out of my chest and I was trying to do everything I could to stay calm and not overdo things."
On the precipice of history, Manaea issued a two-out walk to Benintendi in the ninth inning. He then fell behind Hanley Ramirez 2-0 before inducing a ground ball to second base to end the game and seal the deal.
It was the 12th no-hitter in the history of the Athletics’ franchise, the first since Dallas Braden’s perfect game against the Rays in May of 2010.
Manaea has been nothing short of spectacular through his first five starts this season, compiling a 1.23 ERA, 0.60 WHIP and 30/6 K/BB ratio across a league-high 36 ⅔ innings.
