On Friday night, Edwin Jackson became the third pitcher to no-hit the Tampa Bay Rays in the last calendar year. No team has ever been no-hit three times in a 12-month span before. What’s more, the Rays are one of the best teams in baseball and have one of the top offenses in the game.
What gives? I search for an answer to that over at SI.com.
What gives? The answer is easy: you just can't predict baseball.
[1] That's more or less it.
The number that jumps out to me the most is the number of men left on base, yikes! Talk about wondering if the glass is half full or half empty. Is it more exciting because he walked eight batters en route to a no-hitter? Perhaps because it increases the tension to preserve it, as opposed to a more controlled effort where the pitcher is just mowing them down one by one and getting easy grounders and pop flies... it's certainly an interesting dynamic for fans on who to root for, your team losing vs. witnessing a no-hitter, for example (depending on who's pitching, I would suspect)...for example, who (besides the opposing team) wouldn't feel excited by a Strausberg no-hitter as opposed to a Ted Lilly no-hitter or a Jaime Moyer vs. Rodrigo Lopez, and conversely who wouldn't root against a Vincente Padilla or Carl Pavano no-hitter... (or a Dallas Braden perfect game? >;)
You just can't...