I've never seen that before!

I saw something yesterday that I can only assume is pretty rare.  While keeping tabs on the final day of the MLB season and watching games with playoff implications, it was announced that Henderson Alvarez of the Miami Marlins had a no-hitter going through 7 innings.  Naturally, I put that game on to watch as well.  (MLB.tv lets me watch four games at once!)  The one issue Alvarez was facing, though, is that his team had not scored a run for him yet.  The game went to the 8th inning and he continued to hold the Tigers hitless, but his team was still scoreless.  So to the 9th inning we went with Alvarez looking to continue his no-hitter and possibly ending up with a no decision if the game went to extra innings.  He got the first two outs, walked the next batter and then finished off nine innings of no hit baseball!  Now all his team had to do for him to secure the no-hitter was score a run in the bottom of the ninth.  I have to admit, I was pulling hard for a walk off no-hitter.  I mean, how often does that happen?!  I've never seen it.  The Marlins managed to get runners on second and third with one out and it was looking good.  An out, a walk, and no run later, we had bases loaded and a pretty interesting scene shaping up.  Alvarez, the pitcher, was now on deck.  Now, it would be impossible for him to actually come to the plate as either the winning run would score or the third out would be made, but it was still pretty surreal.  Sure enough a wild pitch was all it took and the Marlins won allowing Alvarez to celebrate his no-hitter while coming from the on deck circle instead of the pitcher's mound.  A rare occurrence indeed.

This is one of the reasons why I love baseball.  On any given day you are likely to see something you've never seen before.  Yesterday was one of those days.  And the rarity of a walk off no-hitter got me curious to see how often, if ever, it has happened.  Turns out, not that often.  It has only happened five other times, the last time in 1997.  That game was a 10 inning affair with two pitchers combining on the no-hit effort..  The last time it happened in nine innings was May 15, 1952 when a Vic Wertz home run gave the Detroit Tigers and Virgil Trucks a victory over the Washington Senators.  So in the last 61 years this has only happened three times.  I think it's safe to say I witnessed history yesterday!