Yu Darvish of the Texas Rangers lost a no-hitter with two outs in the ninth inning on Friday evening, surrendering a seeing-eye single to Boston Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz. If this story sounds familiar to you, it's because it is: Since coming over from Japan, Darvish has made 68 starts, and he has lost a no-hitter at some point in every single one of them. Sure, in some of them it was as early as the first inning, but regardless of the exact timing it's something that happens with nigh-monotonous regularity, especially when he's pitching against the Houston Astros -- which is my way of saying that Darvish is one of the most dominating and creative pitchers in baseball, an amazing strikeout artist with a repertoire of approximately 759 pitches. He has the potential to pitch a no-hitter every time out, and whenever he flirts with one it's terrifically exciting -- until that inevitable moment of anticlimax.
Yu Darvish loses no-hitter again and that is beautiful
No-hitters are cheap flukes, but continually being frustrated by a capricious universe? That marks Yu Darvish as a special pitcher.
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I think I like it better that way, though. There's nothing tragic about not finishing a no-hitter. No-hitters are fairly common events in some ways. Each time a no-hitter is pitched, I feel a compulsion to note that as often as they have been thrown by the likes of Cy Young, Christy Mathewson, Bob Feller, Warren Spahn, Nolan Ryan, and all these other guys with plaques at Cooperstown, they have also been thrown by Philip Humber, Edwin Jackson, Jonathan Sanchez, Carlos Zambrano, Bud Smith, Eric Milton, Kevin Gross, Joe Cowley ... . It's a long list, and whereas it is populated by some exceptionally talented pitchers, there are also some strange, obscure, Loch Ness Monsters surfacing in that pool. Don Nottebart? Bobo Holloman?
Philip Humber (Getty Images)
Sometimes, as in the case of Dennis Eckersley, Bert Blyleven, or Tom Seaver, you’re seeing a truly great pitcher combine amazing talent with a little luck. When it comes to many of these other fellows, you’re seeing the reverse -- a little talent combined with amazing luck. Given that -- and this may seem sort of perverse to you, but I love the idea of frustrated expectations (sometimes, even when they’re my own) -- it seems more special always to be on the verge of pitching one but never quite getting there. Any Tom, Dick, or Ed LaFitte can pitch one, but so very few pitchers can so consistently not pitch one. That’s a far rarer talent.
What says more about a man -- that he is great once, or that he continually brushes sleeves with greatness?
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Look at Dave Stieb. He was the greatest starting pitcher of the 1980s. He had about 37 no-hitters broken up in the late innings, and it was incredibly frustrating because the guy was that good and it certainly seemed at the time that he deserved that no-hitter, had earned it through those repeat attempts, to cement his status as the best pitcher in baseball. Yet, we were wrong. He finally pitched one against a bad Cleveland Indians team on Sept. 2, 1990, and everyone promptly forgot about him and decided that Jack Morris should be in the Hall of Fame. That’s what happens to you when you pitch a no-hitter.
So here is to you, Yu Darvish. May you continue to make start after start of 8⅔ one-hit innings with 12 strikeouts. It’s a continual reminder of how exceptional you are. It says in the Talmud that he who humiliates himself will be lifted up; he who raises himself up will be humiliated. You have hardly humiliated yourself, but let’s assume a similar formulation applies to no-hitters. He who pitches a no-hitter will not be special, but he that is special will not pitch a no-hitter.
Until, of course, he does. At that time, you will no longer belong to the masochists. We will turn you over to the conventional adulation of the masses and you will enjoy deserved but commonplace celebration. Until then, though, we joyfully share your frustration and shiver with you in the dark, unlit aftermath of a game very well pitched but ultimately thwarted.
