Francisco Liriano Throws No-Hitter In 1-0 Win Over Chicago White Sox

For more on Liriano’s no-hitter, stay with this StoryStream or head over to Twinkie Town. For more on the White Sox, check out SB Nation Chicago and South Side Sox.

But while no-hitters are supposed to be this grand, amazing achievement, it’s hard to look at Liriano’s line and come away amazed by his greatness. If anything, you come away amazed that he was able to pull off the no-hitter despite everything else, because over the course of his game, Liriano walked six guys against two strikeouts, and tied a career high with 123 pitches thrown, of which just 66 - 54% - were strikes.

Bill James once devised a statistic known as Game Score. If you’re unfamiliar with it, you can read about it here, but basically, it assigns a grade to a pitcher’s performance in a game based on things like his hits, walks, strikeouts, innings, and so on. Francisco Liriano’s game score on Tuesday night was 83. This is tied for the lowest game score in a no-hitter in baseball history (where baseball history begins in 1919, as per the Baseball-Reference Play Index).

One of the most misunderstood trades in recent baseball history: the very same trade.

There were reasons for the Giants to believe that they were selling high on Nathan and Bonser, but that wasn’t really relevant Tuesday night. Tuesday night was about Francisco Liriano -- that electric young left-handed arm. When he came up with the Twins, he was so otherworldly and dominating that the idea of another team letting him get away was unthinkable. The Giants were the butt of baseball’s biggest joke.